Pompey the Great: A Political Biography, Second Edition

286 Pages·2002·11.848 MB·English

by  Robin Seager(auth.)

POMPEY THE GREAT
For Ruthie
POMPEY THE GREAT
A Political Biogruplzy
Second Edition
Robin Seagev
BI a ckwe II
Publishing
0 1979,2002 by Robin Seagei
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Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published 1979 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Second edition published 2002
Reprinted 2003
Library of Congress Cfltnloging-in-PublicatioDn ata
Seager, Robin.
Pompey the Great : a political biography I Robin Seager-2nd [updated] ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-22720-2 (alk. paper) -ISBN 0-631-22721-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Pompey, the Great, 106-48 B.C. 2. Consuls Roman - Biography.
3. Generals-Rome-Biography. 4. Rome-History-First Triumvirate, 60-53 B.C.
5. Rome-History-53-44 B.C. I. Seager, Robin. Pompey. 11. Title.
DG258 S42 2002
937’.05’0924c21
P I 2002022773
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Set in 11 on 13 pt Bembo
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Printed and bound in the United Kingdom
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
Prgace to the First Edition ix
Abbreviations X
Map 1 Italy in the Late Republic xii
Map 2 Latium xiii
Map 3 Spain in the Time of Pompeius and Caesar xiv
Map 4 Asia Minor xv
Map 5 The East XVi
Introduction: The Historical Background - from the Gracchi
to Sulla 1
Cn. Pompeius Strabo 20
Pompeius, Cinna and Sulla 25
The Rise to the Consulship 30
The Commands against the Pirates and Mithradates 40
Pompeius in the East 53
Rome in the Absence of Pompeius 63
The Return of Pompeius 75
The Consulship of Caesar 86
The Exile of Cicero 101
vi CONTENTS
10 The Conference of Luca 110
11 The Second Consulship and the Growth of Anarchy 120
12 The Third Consulship and the Approach of Civil War 133
13 The Civil War 152
14 Conclusion 169
Afterword 173
Appendix 1 Chronological Table 184
Appendix 2 The Chronology of Caesar’s Legislation in 59 189
Appendix 3 The Terminal Date of Caesar’s Gallic Command 191
Notes 194
Glossary 247
Select Bib1i ograph y 252
Index 260
P RE FAC E
I am grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to produce a revised
edition of this book, which has now been unavailable for many years, and
in particular to Al Bertrand, who first made the suggestion to me and has
proved eminently flexible and understanding throughout our subsequent
dealings.
The text of the origmal version has been reproduced essentially un-
changed, apart from the correction of misprints and other minor blemishes
and the removal of a few obscurities of expression. However, various
additions have been made, not least with a view to making the book
more accessible not only to scholars and students but to those with a
more general interest in Rome and its history.
An Introduction presents a concise narrative of Roman politics from Ti.
Gracchus to Sulla. This, it is hoped, will provide a contextual background
to Pompeius’ career for those relatively unfamiliar with the subject and
enable them better to understand the political world in which he set out to
make his mark. An Afterword deals with those matters, great and small, on
which advances in scholarship have increased our knowledge or caused me
to change my opinions since the appearance of the first edition. As further
aids to comprehension I have added a Chronologcal Table and a Glossary
of technical terms, while some Latin words and phrases have also been
translated where they occur in the text and notes. A further significant
improvement, for which I personally can claim very little credit, is the
embellishment of the book with a number of maps.
In conclusion I should especially like to thank my editor, Margaret
Aherne. Her unerring eye for error and confusion, her imagmative and
viii PREFACE
constructive approach, her patience with my prejudices and her sense of
humour have done much to make what might have been a lengthy war of
attrition as swift and painless as the Great one’s campaign against the pirates.
Robin Seager
Liverpool, December 2001
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Books on Caesar and Cicero abound. Even Crassus has now attracted two
biographers in quick succession. Yet there has been no life in English of
Pompey the Great, though Syme could label the decades of his greatest
eminence as ‘the domination of Pompeius’. Scholars and students have had
at their disposal only foreign works: in German the admirable study by the
greatest of all historians of republican Rome, Matthias Gelzer, in French
the voluminous compilation of van Ooteghem. Therefore a book in
English on Pompeius should need no justification.’ Nor should the writing
of historical biography, at least for anyone who believes with Gelzer that
the historian’s proper concern is ‘was die Menschen der Vergangenheit
bewegte, was sie dachten und trieben’. The subtitle of the present work is
intended to warn the reader to expect no treatment of the detail of
Pompeius’ wars and no estimate of him as a commander.
The unremitting burdens of teaching and administration the former
-
useful at least, sometimes even rewarding, the latter irksome and futile in
equal measure have unduly delayed the writing of this book. It is the
-
more pleasant to gve thanks to those whose kmdness has helped. A visit to
Rome in 1975 was made possible by a grant from the Research Fund of the
University of Liverpool. Bruce Marshall presented me with a copy of his
book on Crassus before it was generally available, Allen Ward with page
proofs of his. Other unpublished material was put at my disposal by
Geoffrey Lewis. Pat Sweetingham laboured well beyond the call of duty
in producing the final typescript with breathtaking speed. But my greatest
debt is to Peter Wiseman and above all to Josette Jackson, who both read
the entire book in draft and were responsible for countless improvements in
both style and substance.
Robin Seager
ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations and short titles not included in this list should be immedi-
ately intelligible on reference to the bibliography.
AHR American Historical Review
AJP American Journal of Philology
ANRW H. Temporini (ed.),A ufstieg und Niedegang der romischen Welt I
1, BerldNew York, 1972
Athen. Athenaeum
CAH Cambridge Ancient History
CM Classica et Mediaevalia
CP Classical Philology
CQ Classical Quarterly
CR Classical Review
CRAl Comptes-rendus de l’Acade‘mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres
CSCA Calgornia Studies in Classical Antiquily
GC A. H. J. Greenidge and A. M. Clay, Sources for Roman History
133-70 B.C.’ (ed. E. W. Gray), Oxford, 1960
GR Greece and Rome
ILLRP Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae (ed. A. Degrassi),
Firenze, 1963-5
ILS Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (ed. H. Dessau), repr. Berlin,
1962
of
JP Journal Philology
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
LAAA Liverpool Annals of Art and Archaeology
LCM Liverpool Classical Monthly
MRR T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic,
New York, 1951-60