Pompey (105–47 BCE)
Born 105 BCE, died 47 BCE.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Latin: [ˈŋnae̯.ʊs pɔmˈpɛjjʊs ˈmaŋnʊs]; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( POM-pee) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the final decades of the Roman Republic. As a young man, he was a partisan and protégé of the dictator Sulla, after whose death he achieved significant military and political success. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered into a military career at an early age. He rose to prominence serving Sulla as a commander during the civil war of 83–81 BC. His early success as a general allowed him to bypass the traditional cursus honorum (the sequence of public offices required for political advancement), and he was elected as consul on three occasions (70, 55, 52 BC). He celebrated three triumphs and served as a commander in the Sertorian War, the Third Servile War, the Third Mithridatic War, and in various other military campaigns. Pompey's early success led dictator Sulla to grant him the cognomen Magnus – "the Great" – reportedly in reference to Pompey's admiration for Alexander the Great.
Text from the Wikipedia article Pompey, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.