Gnaeus 05Pompeius Magnus (=Pompey; 58; fl.82-48 BC)
Marcus 13Licinius Crassus had effectively ended the war against Spartacus in 71 BC. Pompey, who had arrived in Italy after the defeat of Spartacus, merely took part in a mop up operation but then claimed full credit for the final victory.
Crassus nevertheless asked Pompey to stand with him for the consulship for 70 BC and they maintained their armies outside Rome in order to pressure the Senate. Pompey was granted dispensation from the age restrictions of the lex Cornelia de magistratibus of Sulla and was allowed his triumph (victory abroad) for his success in Spain, and Crassus received an ovatio (victory at home) for his success in Italy, and both were elected consuls in absentia.
Pompey and Crassus now swept away much of what remained of Sulla’s constitution. After restoring the tribunate’s powers, they revived the dormant censorship by electing the consuls of 72 BC as censors and these promptly ejected sixty-four members from the Senate.
Gaius Verres, the governor in Sicily 73 to 71 BC, had plundered his province for personal gain. Although this was typical of Roman governors of the time he had perhaps been more greedy than most. He probably expected that with the help of bribery, powerful allies and the defence lawyer 03Hortensius Hortalus (64; fl.95-50 BC), he would survive a prosecution in the extortion courts. But he was defeated by the oratorical and legal genius of 02Tullius Cicero, whose Verrine Orations have made Verres’ crimes notorious. Verres kept much of his plundered treasure and retired to Massilia where he died.
Cicero also paved the way for further reform. This was undertaken by the praetor 07Aurelius Cotta passed the lex Aurelia iudiciaria, revoking the senatorial monopoly of the law courts, which in future would be empanelled in equal numbers from the senators, equites and tribuni aerarii (tax collectors). As the last two groups had similar interests, this new arrangement was a political victory for the equites.
In 67 BC two tribunes became very active. Gaius 43Cornelius introduced a limited set of laws to deal with some obvious abuses which were now appearing in public life. His fellow tribune, Aulus Gabinius (2), is remembered for bringing forward the lex Gabinia that gave Pompey the command of the war against the pirates.
In 66 BC after Pompey had cleared the Mediterranean of pirates, a tribune Gaius Manilius (2) introduced the lex Manilia proposing that Bithynia, Pontus and Cilicia and the command against Mithridates be entrusted to Pompey, who would retain the powers under the lex Gabinia. Caesar supported the bill and Cicero delivered a speech in which he advocated the appointment and lauded Pompey’s past achievements.
When the news of his appointment reached Pompey he was in Cilicia. He persuaded Phraates III of Parthia (r.70-57 BC) that for the return of Gordyene and Adiabene, which Tigranes had annexed, he would attack Armenia while Pompey himself advanced against Mithridates in Pontus.
Tigranes’ eldest son Tigranes the Younger and his adherents were at the Arsacid court. In the summer Phraates and the prince invaded Armenia and besieged Artaxata. Tigranes II managed to extricate his main forces and escaped to the mountains. Thinking the campaign had ended, Phraates departed and left the prince to continue the siege. But the king descended and drove the investing army from the country.
Mithridates was thus denied any help from Armenia when he came under attack. He positioned his forces, reduced to about thirty thousand, at the head of the Lycus Valley in Lesser Armenia, and occupied a strong position on the unidentified heights of the Dasteira (possibly at the site of the city of Nicopolis, founded by Pompey at the end of war).
After some six weeks of fighting, Mithridates withdrew eastwards towards Armenia. Pompey followed and cut off the Pontic army in a defile where night battle was fought in which Pontic resistance collapsed; ten thousand casualties were said to have been inflicted. Mithridates himself escaped Sinora, a town possibly close to the border with Armenia.
Pompey entered Armenia and received the surrender of Tigranes, who was allowed to keep his throne but had to pay an indemnity and surrender all his conquests to Rome. His son was installed at Sophene, but when he became rebellious he was taken to Rome. Pompey broke his promise to Phraates and stopped him from occupying Gordyene and Adiabene.
After sending legates southeast to the regions of Gordyene, Adiabene and Mesopotamia, Pompey took his army northeast towards the upper Cyrus (=Kura) River that drains the Caucasus Mountains, marched through the highlands of Caucasian Iberia and entered Caucasian Albania
During winter 66/5 BC the Albanian king, Oroises, attacked Roman encampments near the Aras (main tributary of the Kura), but he was defeated and accepted a truce. In the spring Pompey moved westwards into Iberian territory and defeated the Iberian king, Artoces (r.78-63 BC). Pompey made a formal peace, and marched westwards down the Phasis (=Rioni) Valley. At the port of Phasis he was met by his naval legate Servilius (14), who had reached there with a Roman fleet.
In 64 BC much time was taken in checking the contents of the numerous treasure-houses of Mithridates, but the main task was the reorganisation of Pontus as a province and the appointment or renewal of tenure of the kings and princes in the lesser kingdoms in Anatolia. Late in the year, Pompey moved southwards through Cappadocia and Cilicia into northern Syria. Its ruler Antiochus XIII (r.69-64 BC) yielded to Pompey, who recognized Antiochus kingship and rewarded him with an extension of territory into western Mesopotamia.
In 67 BC John Hyrcanus II (r.67-66, 63-40 BC) ascended to the throne of Judea. Scarcely three months later, his younger brother Judah Aristobulus II (r.66-63 BC) successfully led an uprising and overthrew Hyrcanus. Pompey’s legate, 15Aemilius Scaurus, settled the dispute in favour of Aristobulus, but in 63 BC Pompey established Hyrcanus as high priest and ethnarch (tribe leader) to the satisfaction of numerous Jews, and dispatched Aristobulus as a prisoner to Rome.
The power of the aggressive king Aretas III of Nabataea (r.87-62 BC), who had supported Aristobulus, was a threat to the peace of Syria. Scaurus, whom Pompey had placed in charge of the new province, raided Nabataean territory. Aretas, although his main forces remained defeated, made a nominal submission and paid a fine (or bribe) to Scaurus
Mithridates had made his way to Crimea and conceived the ambitious plan to invade Italy via the Danube. But this was too much for his subjects who, led by his eldest son Pharnaces II (r.63-47 BC), rebelled. Mithridates fled to the citadel of Panticapaeum on the eastern shore of Crimea, where he gave up and died by the hand of one of his Celtic bodyguards.
Pompey redrew the map of Anatolia in a way he considered to be best for its security. His plan was to have a continuous line of Roman provinces around the coast of Asia Minor. Also, with Armenia remaining friendly to Rome and hostile to Parthia, the west would be well protected by this shield of provinces and its cushion of buffer states beyond.
It was important that peoples of Asia Minor looked to the west and not to the Parthian east. Pompey therefore decided to expand the main unifying feature of this region, the city-state, by founding or restoring a large number of cities that were based on Greek institutions – thirty-nine in Asia and Syria, and eleven in Bithynia and Pontus.
Leave a Reply