Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/60

42 Pompey raised three legions in Picthum, out-manœuvred the superior forces opposed to him, and affected a junction with Sulla's troops in Southern Italy. The Dictator treated the young soldier with marked distinction; he employed him in independent commands, he yielded in spite of all constitutional objections to his demand for a triumph, and saluted him with the title of "the Great," which Pompey bore henceforth as a surname. After Sulla's death Pompey in turn lent his sword to defend the constitution against the attacks of Lepidus. Nevertheless the union between the general and the government was never hearty or sincere; and this was mainly because the oligarchs would not take the trouble to bind Pompey to their cause. It was intolerable to them that any man should claim the exceptional position which Pompey had occupied from the outset, and which he had no intention of relinquishing. It was contrary to all rules that a young man, not yet of senatorial age, who had filled none even of the minor magistracies of the State, should be invested with one extraordinary command after another, that he should be general-in-chief of armies, and triumph like a legitimate consul. Pompey was not really a dangerous man: he had no designs against the State, and no love of the hazards and dislocations of revolution; he asked for nothing better than to be the armed protector of a Republican government; but he considered himself a privileged person, for whom every-day rules were not made, and he was fully resolved not to reduce himself to the rank of an ordinary noble as the