Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/489

Pompeius son. For that reason he was. not allowed to conduct the accusation, which was assigned to C. Caesar instead (Cic. Div. in Cæcil. 19). He was probably praetor in 94, and obtained in the  following year the government of Sicily (Cic. Verr. iii. 16, v. 66). On the breaking out of the Social or Marsic war, in 90, Pompeius served as legate under the consul P. Rutilius Lupus. Pompeius was at first defeated, and obliged to take refuge at Firmum, where he was besieged by Afranius, one of the Italian generals. But when Sulpicius came to his assistance, Afranius was attacked at once by the two Roman armies, and lost his life in the battle : his troops fled in confusion to Ascalum. To this town Pompeius proceeded to lay siege ; and as he seems to have been regarded as a general of no mean abilities, he was elected to the consulship, 89, with L. Porcius Cato. Soon after entering upon his consulship, he defeated the Italians on the east coast, who, ignorant that the Etruscans had made terms with the Romans, were marching to their assistance. He followed up this victory by others, and defeated, in succession, the Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini. He at length took Asculum, and subdued the Picentines, and returned to Rome at the end of the year, which he entered in triumph on the 27th of December. Before he laid down his consulship, he probably brought forward the law (lex Pompeia), which gave to all the towns of the Transpadani the Jus Latii or Latinitas.

In the following year, 88, occurred the dreadful struggle between Marius and Sulla for the command of the Mithridatic war, which ended in the proscription of Marius, and his flight from Italy. Strabo had returned to his army, and was engaged in southern Italy in completing the subjugation of the Italians, when he learnt that the senate had deprived him of the command, and had assigned his army to the consul Q. Pompeius Rufus, to whom the care of Italy was entrusted, while his colleague Sulla was engaged in the Mithridatic war. But Strabo, who was excessively fond of power, was indignant at this decision. He however concealed his resentment and handed over the army to Rufus ; but at the same time he secretly instigated the soldiers to murder their new commander, which they accordingly did shortly afterwards. He affected great horror of the crime, but took no steps to bring the perpetrators to justice ; and Sulla, who was on the point of starting for the East, was obliged to overlook the murder.

Next year, 87, the Marian party obtained the upper hand. L. Cinna, who had been driven out of the city by his colleague Cn. Octavius, had collected a formidable army, and being joined by Marius, advanced against Rome. The aristocracy summoned Pompeius Strabo to their aid; but as he commanded against their wish, and had been refused a second consulship this year, he was unwilling to espouse their side. Still, not being prepared to join the other party, he advanced by slow marches to the relief of the city, and, contrary to his wishes, was obliged to fight near the Colline Gate with Cinna and Sertorius. The battle was not decisive, but Strabo was unable to play any longer a neutral part. Cinna attempted to remove him by assassination, but he was saved by the energy and prudence of his son, who also quelled a dangerous mutiny among the soldiers. Shortly after these events, and in the course of the same year, 87, Strabo was killed by lightning. His avarice and cruelty had made him hated by the soldiers to such a degree, that they tore his corpse from the bier and dragged it through the streets. Cicero describes him (Brut. 47) as "worthy of hatred on account of his cruelty, avarice, and perfidy." He possessed some reputation as an orator, and still more as a general. He left behind him a considerable property, especially in Picenum ; and his anxiety to protect his estates probably led him to make that neighbourhood one of the principal seats of the war against the Italians (Appian, B. C. i. 40, 47, 52, 66—68, 80 ; Liv. Epit. 74—79 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 20, 21 ; Flor. iii. 18 ; Oros. v. 18 ; Plut. Pomp. 1, 3 ; Cic. Philipp. xii. 11.)

 22. , the son of No. 21, and afterwards the triumvir, was born on the 30th of September, 106, in the consulship of Atilius Serranus and Servilius Caepio. He was consequently a few months younger than Cicero, who was born on the 3d of January in this year, and six years older than Caesar. He had scarcely left school before he was summoned to serve under his father in the Social war. He fought under him in 89 against the Italians, when he was only seventeen years of age, and continued with him till his death two years afterwards. He was present at the battle of the Colline Gate, in 87, and, as has been already related, he saved the life of his father, and quelled an insurrection of the soldiers by his courage and activity. The death of his father soon after this event left Pompey his own master at the age of nineteen. The aristocratical party were no longer able to offer any opposition to Marius and Cinna, who accordingly entered Rome shortly afterwards, and took a bloody revenge on their opponents. Pompey's house was plundered ; and he did not venture to appear in public till after the death of Marius in the following year, 86. His enemies, however, immediately accused him of having shared with his father in the plunder of Asculum. Not trusting either to the justice of his cause, or to the eloquence of his advocates, L. Marcius Philippus and Q. Hortensius, he agreed to marry the daughter of the praetor Antistius, who presided at the trial, and was in consequence acquitted.

In 84, the Marian party made great preparations to oppose Sulla, who had now finished the Mithridatic war, and was on his way to Italy. Pompey, though so young, was fired with the ambition of distinguishing himself above all the other leaders of the aristocracy ; and while the rest were content to wait quietly for Sulla's arrival in Italy to deliver them from their enemies, Pompey resolved to share with Sulla the glory of crushing the Marian party. He accordingly fled from the camp of Cinna shorly before the latter was murdered, and hastened to Picenum, where he proceeded to levy troops without holding any public office, and without any authority from the senate or people. The influence which he possessed by his large estates in Picenum, and by his personal popularity, enabled him to raise an army of three legions by the beginning of the following year, 83. He assumed the command at Auximum, a town in the north of Picenum, not far from Ancona ; and while the rest of the aristocracy hastened to join Sulla, who had landed at Brundisium, Pompey was anxious to distinguish himself by some brilliant success over the enemy. The faults