Pompey then marched throughout the East, founding cities and extending Rome’s power throughout Albania, the Red Sea region, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Mesopotamia and Arabia. Although outnumbered, Pompey defeated Mithridates at the Euphrates River and pursued him to the shores of the Black Sea. In 66 BC, Pompey was appointed to another extraordinary command, this time against King Mithridates IV, ruler of the eastern kingdom of Pontus. Although Pompey’s term was scheduled to last an unprecedented three years, through his extraordinary administrative skill and a brilliant concentration of Rome’s forces, he successfully completed his assignment in only three months. Pompey was virtually made a dictator in 67 when the People’s Assembly, Rome’s theoretical governing body, elected him to combat the widespread problem of piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. In late 71 BC, Pompey and his rival Marcus Licinius Crassus were elected consuls, Rome’s two highest offices for the year 70. The ambitious young general twice wrested from his government a triumph, Rome’s highest military honor-and one to which he was not technically entitled. Pompey’s campaigns against the populares in Sicily, Spain and North Africa, and in Italy against Spartacus’ fugitive gladiators in 71 BC, earned him the title “Magnus,” or Great, from his troops. Pompey began his career as a handsome, energetic young officer serving in the patrician armies of the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The roads that led these two great generals-relatives by marriage and former allies-to duel under the Greek sun are a testament to the turbulent politics of the republic’s last century. Caesar led the populist faction, the populares (favoring the people), nobles supported by Rome’s farmers, veterans and middle class. Pompey led the patrician faction, the optimates (best ones), composed of Rome’s aristocrats and senators. Prelude to BattleĪlmost two years before the two rivals met at Pharsalus, the Roman Republic, split by a half century of political unrest, had drifted into civil war. Though unknown to Pompey at the time, Caesar had vowed that very day that if Venus brought him victory at Pharsalus he would build a great temple to her in Rome. Venus was the goddess from whom Caesar’s aristocratic clan, the Julians, claimed to be descended.
The dream must have made the great commander nervous. There he dreamed of being applauded by Rome’s citizens as he dedicated a temple to the goddess Venus, Bringer of Victory. After quelling the disturbance caused by the meteor, Pompey retired to his tent. To some of his soldiers it was an ill omen. Pompey’s unease was fueled by a meteor that had shot across the sky near his camp the night before.
On the morning of August 9, 48 BC, Rome’s most famous general-Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, or Pompey the Great-apprehensively prepared his troops to face the army of Rome’s most successful general, Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus Close
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