Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo

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Pompeius Strabo
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Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo
Bornc. 135 BC
Died87 BC
Outside Rome, Italy
NationalityRoman
Office
ChildrenPompey and Pompeia
Parents
  • Sextus Pompeius (father)
  • Lucilia (mother)
Military service
Battles/warsSocial War
Bellum Octavianum
AwardsTriumph

Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (c. 135 – 87 BC) was a Roman general and politician, who served as

Pompey the Great, or from Strabo the geographer
.

Strabo, the

Scipio Aemilianus. Strabo's paternal grandfather was Gnaeus Pompeius, while his father was Sextus Pompeius. His elder brother was Sextus Pompeius and his sister was Pompeia
.

Career

Marble bust of Pompey Strabo in Lodi, Lombardy.

Strabo was a prominent member of the Pompeii, a noble family in Picenum, in the north-east of Italy. The Pompeii had become the richest and most prominent family of the region, and had a large clientele and a lot of influence in Picenum and Rome. Despite the anti-rural prejudice of the Roman Senate, the Pompeii could not be ignored. After serving in the military, probably as a military tribune, Strabo climbed the cursus honorum and became promagistrate in Sicily 93 BC and consul in the year 89 BC, in the midst of the Social War.

Social war

Despite Strabo's provincial roots, he and his family were Roman citizens and therefore took up Rome's cause during the Civil War the Republic had to fight with its Italian Allies. He commanded his forces against the Italian rebels in the northern part of

Quintus Pompeius Rufus
were elected consuls.

Triumph

Strabo celebrated a

Rutilius Rufus referred to him as "the vilest man alive". When negotiations with the Cinna-Marian faction fell through he did, however, attack Quintus Sertorius, one of Cinna's commanders, who was positioned north of the city, but the attack was without success.[8]

Death

In 87 BC Strabo and his army encamped outside the Colline Gate. He kept an unhygienic camp which resulted in an outbreak of disease in his army. Strabo himself caught dysentery and died a few days later, still in his camp outside the Colline Gate. 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.[9] Another story expounded by Plutarch claimed that the general died after being struck by lightning.[10]

His son, Pompey the Great, took the legions back to Picenum. He would use them to support Sulla a few years later.

Strabo had at least two children: a son,

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, and a daughter, Pompeia, who married Gaius Memmius and then Publius Cornelius Sulla.[11]

In his honour his name was given to the cities of Alba Pompeia and Laus Pompeia.

References

Citations
  1. ^ Broughton 1952, pp. 29, 32, 42, 48–49.
  2. ^ Lynda Telford, Sulla: A Dictator Reconsidered, p. 86.
  3. ^ a b Tom Holland, Rubicon, p. 58.
  4. ^ Philip Matyszak, Cataclysm 90 BC, p. 100.
  5. ^ Philip Matyszak, Cataclysm 90 BC, p. 105.
  6. ^ a b c John Leach, Pompey the Great, p.15; Velleius Paterculus, Historia Romana, II. 21.
  7. ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 19; Appius, Civil Wars, I.63; Sallust, Histories, II. 21.
  8. ^ Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the Struggle for Spain, p.27.
  9. ^ Lynda Telford, Sulla, p. 112.
  10. ^ Plutarch, Pompey
  11. ^ Leach, Pompey, family tree and p. 104

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pompey". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 56–58.

Sources
Preceded by
P. Rutilius Lupus
Roman consul
89 BC
With: Lucius Porcius Cato
Succeeded by
Q. Pompeius Rufus