The Eclipse of Pompey
Pompey the Great’s settlement of the eastern Mediterranean was his greatest and most enduring achievement. With few modifications, it lasted for over 500 years. When he returned to Italy in 62 BC, Pompey sought land upon which to settle his veterans and legislation to ratify his settlement of the east. However, political chaos in Rome prevented that. He finally accomplished his goals after he formed a Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus, Rome’s two most powerful men after Pompey. Power in the Roman Republic was divided between the trio, and to seal the deal, Pompey married Caesar’s daughter.
After Crassus died in 53 BC, followed by Pompey’s wife and Caesar’s daughter soon thereafter, the two remaining Triumvirs drifted apart, and finally went to war in 49 BC. Pompey and the optimates conservative faction fled to Greece, where they raised an army. Caesar followed, and Rome’s two greatest generals finally met at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Pompey might have been great, but Caesar proved greater, and Pompey’s army was crushed. He fled and sailed to Egypt, where he was tricked to come ashore. He was assassinated and his head was chopped off as soon as his feet touched Egyptian soil.