Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/488

Rh 476 POMPEIUS. shortly after his arrival in the camp, having pre- I viously received him without opposition, [See below. No. 21.] Cicero mentions Pompeius Rufus among the orators whom he had lieard in his youth : his orations were written or corrected bv L. Aelius. (Appian, B.C. i. 55—57, 68; Veil. Pat. ii. 20 ; Liv. Epit. 77 ; Pint. Sidl 8 ; Cic. Lael. 1. pro Cluent. 5, Brut. 56, 89.) 7. A Pompeius, tribune of the plebs, b.o. 102, mav perhaps have been a younger son of No. 4. (Pfut. Mar. 17.) 8. Q. Pompeius Rufus, son of No. 6, married Sulla's daughter, and was murdered by the party of Sulpicius and Marius in the forum in B. c. 88 (Appian, B. C. i. 56 ; Plut. Sidl. 8). 9. Q. Pompeius Rufus, son of No. 8, and grand- son of the dictator Sulla, first appears in public in B. c. 54 as the accuser of M. Messalla, because he had gahied his election to the consulship by bribery. [Messalla, No. 7.] He was tribune of the plebs B. c. 52, and not b. c. 53, as Dion Cassius states (. 45). In his tribuneship he distinguished him- self as the great partizan of the triumvir Pom- pey. The latter longed for the dictatorship, and therefore secretly fomented the disturbances at Rome, in hopes that all parties tired of anarchy would willingly throw themselves into his arms. Rufus supported his views, and to increase the confusion would not allow any of the elections to be held. There seemed an end of all government. The senate apprehended Rufus and cast him into prison, notwithstanding his sacred character as tribune ; but this act of violence only strengthened his power and influence. He retaliated by throw- ing into prison one of the most active supporters of the senatorial party, the aedile Favonius. The murder of Clodius by Milo on the 20th of January still further favoured the views of the triumvir ; Rufus and his colleague Munatius Plancus added fuel to the fire, and omitted no means for increas- ing the wrath of the people. Pompey was ap- pointed sole consul ; the laws which he proposed were supported by Rufus and his party, and Milo was condemned. But he had no sooner laid down his office of tribune, on the lOth of December in this year, than he was accused by one of his late colleagues, M. Caelius, of violating the very law JJe Fe, which he had taken so active a part in passing. He was condemned, and lived in exile at Bauli in Campania. Here he was in great pecu- niary difficulties, till M. Caelius, who had accused him, generously compelled his mother Cornelia to surrender to him his paternal property. The last time that Rufus is mentioned is in B. c. 51, when his enemies spread the false report that he had murdered Cicero on his journey to Cilicia. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. iii. 2. % Z, ad Att. iv. 16. § 8 ; Dion Cass. xl. 45, 49, 55 ; Ascon. in Cic. Milon, passim ; Caelius, ad Fam. viii. 1. § 4 ; VaL Max. iv. 2. 10. PoMPEiA, daughter of No. 8. [Pompeia, No. 2.] 11. Q. Pompeius Bithynicus, probably son of No. 7. [BiTHyNicus, No. 1.] 12. A. Pompeius Bithynicus, son of No. 11. [Bithynicus, No. 2.] 13. Q. Pompeius Rufus, praetor b. c, 63. His cognomen shows that he belonged to the preceding family, but his descent is quite uncertain. In his praetorship he was sent to Capua, where he re- nuiiiied part of the following year, because it POMPEIUS. was feared that the slaves in Campania and Apulia might rise in support of Catiline. In b. c. 6 1 he obtained the province of Africa, with the title of proconsul, which he governed with great in- tegrity, according to Cicero. He did not, however, succeed in obtaining the consulship, although he was alive some years afterwards, for we find him bear- ing witness in B. c. 56 in behalf of M. C.ielius, who had been with him in Africa. (Sail. Cut. 30 ; Cic. pro CaeL 30.) 14. Cn. Pompeius, only known from the Fasti Capitolini, as the grandfather of No. 21. 15. Sex. Pompeius, son of the preceding, mar- ried Lucilia, a sister of the poet C. Lucilius, who was therefore the grandmother, and not the mother of the triumvir, as is stated by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 29). and many modern writers. 16. Sex. Pompeius Sex. f. Cn. n., was the son of No. 15, and we may conclude from his prae- nomen that he was the elder of his two sons. He never obtained any of the higher offices of the state, but acquired great reputation as a man of learning, and is praised by Cicero for his accurate knowledge of jurisprudence, geometry, and the Stoic philosophy. He was present on one occasion in the camp of his brother Strabo during the Social war, b. c. 89, but this is the only time in which his name occurs in public affairs. (Cic. Brut. 47, Phiiipp. xii. 11, i>e Orat. i. 15, iii. 21, De Off. i. 6.) 17. Sex. Pompeius, son of No. 1 6, only known as the father of No. 19. 18. Q. Pompeius Sex. f., probably younger son of No. 16, is recommended by Cicero in a letter, of which we do not know the date, to one Curius. proconsul of some province (Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 49). 19. Sex. Pompeius Sex. f., son of No. 17, was consul b. c. 35, with L. Cornificius, in which year Sex. Pompeius, the son of the triumvir, was killed in Asia. (Dion Cass. xlix. 18, 33.) 20. Sex. Pompeius Sex. f. son of No. 19, was consul a. d. 14, with Sex. Appuleius, in which year the emperor Augustus died. These consuls were the first to render homage to Tiberius (Dion Cass. Ivi. 29 ; Tac. Ann. i. 7 ; Suet. Aug. 100 ; VeU. Pat. ii. 123). Sex Pompeius seems to have been a patron of literature. Ovid addressed him several letters during his exile {ex Pont. iv. 1. 4, 5, 15) ; and it was probably this same Sex. Pom- peius, whom the writer Valerius Maximus accom- panied to Asia, and of whom he speaks as his Alex- ander. (Val. Max. ii. 6. § 8, iv. 7. extern. § 2.) 21. Cn. Pompeius Sex. f. Cn. n. Strabo, younger son of No. 15, and father of the triumvir. His surname Strabo, which signifies one who squints, and which occurs in several other Roman gentes, is said to have been first given to his cook, Menogenes, and then to have been applied to Pompeius himself, from his likeness to his slave (Plin. H. N. vii. 10. s. 12 ; Val. Max. ix. 14. § 2). Whether this be true or false, Pompeius at all events adopted the name ; and it appears on his coins, and in the Fasti. All the ancient writers agree in giving this Pompeius a thoroughly bad cliaracter. His name is first mentioned in con- nection with a discreditable matter. He had been quaestor in Sardinia in B. c. 103, under the pro- praetor T. Albucius, against whom he collected materials for an accusation, although the Romans regarded the relation between praetor and quaestor as a sacred one, like that between father and