Latest / The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History / Pompey the Great and the Rise of the First Triumvirate
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Roman Republic's institutions — the Senate, the assemblies, the censorship. But today I want to look at a moment when those institutions started to buckle under the weight of individual ambition. Lucas: The year is 60 BCE. Rome is ostensibly still a republic, but it's a republic that's been stretched by decades of conquest, slave revolts, and civil strife. And three men — Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and Marcus Licinius Crassus — are about to form a private pact that will effectively rule the state. Luna: The First Triumvirate. Lucas: Exactly. But the word 'triumvirate' is misleading — it wasn't an official office. It was a backroom alliance, a deal among friends — or at least allies of convenience. And of the three, Pompey was arguably the most famous at the time. Lucas: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus — that's his full name. He was born in 106 BCE, and by his mid-twenties he was already a seasoned commander under Sulla. He earned the cognomen 'Magnus' — the Great — partly through his own propaganda, but also through real military success. Luna: Wasn't he the one who cleared the Mediterranean of pirates? Lucas: That was one of his most famous achievements. In 67 BCE, the Senate gave him an extraordinary command — the lex Gabinia — to deal with the pirate threat that had been choking Rome's grain supply. Pompey was given unprecedented powers: command over the entire Mediterranean Sea and up to fifty miles inland, a massive fleet, and huge funds. Lucas: He did it in just three months. He divided the Mediterranean into sectors, swept the pirates into their strongholds in Cilicia, and then — instead of crucifying them all — he settled many of them in inland communities. It was efficient and surprisingly humane. Luna: That must have made him incredibly popular with the people. Lucas: Immensely. And then he capped it with an even bigger command: the war against Mithridates VI of Pontus. That was the lex Manilia in 66 BCE, supported by Cicero in a famous speech. Pompey finished what Lucullus had started, defeated Mithridates, and reorganized the entire eastern Mediterranean into Roman provinces. Lucas: He returned to Rome in 62 BCE as the richest and most powerful man in the Republic. But here's the problem: the Senate, led by conservatives like Cato the Younger, refused to ratify his eastern settlement or grant land to his veterans. They were terrified of his power. Luna: So Pompey needed allies. Lucas: Exactly. And he found two: Crassus, the richest man in Rome, who had his own network of clients and debts; and Caesar, then a rising politician who had just returned from a governorship in Spain. Caesar was brilliant, charismatic, and deeply in debt to Crassus. Lucas: In 60 BCE, the three of them formed a secret alliance. Caesar would be elected consul for 59 BCE, and in return he'd push through Pompey's land bills and ratify his Eastern arrangements. Crassus would get relief for his tax-farming clients. Everyone got something. Luna: And it worked? Lucas: For a while. Caesar became consul, and he steamrolled the Senate. He ignored his colleague Bibulus — literally had him physically barred from the Forum — and passed the lex Iulia agraria, giving land to Pompey's veterans. He also got himself an extraordinary command: Gaul, for five years, via the lex Vatinia. Lucas: That command would let him conquer all of Gaul and build his own army and reputation. Meanwhile, Pompey stayed in Rome, perhaps too comfortable, while Crassus craved military glory of his own. Luna: So the alliance started to fray. Lucas: It did. By the mid-50s, the three men met in Lucca in 56 BCE to patch things up. They agreed to extend Caesar's command, let Pompey and Crassus be consuls again, and then give Crassus a command in the East — against the Parthians. That was a disaster: Crassus was killed at Carrhae in 53 BCE. Lucas: With Crassus gone, the balance tipped. Pompey and Caesar became rivals. The Senate, led by Cato and now allied with Pompey, demanded that Caesar give up his command and return to Rome as a private citizen. Caesar refused, and in 49 BCE he crossed the Rubicon. Luna: So the Triumvirate essentially created the conditions for civil war. Lucas: Exactly. Pompey was given command of the Senate's forces, but he hesitated, fled to Greece, and was ultimately defeated at Pharsalus in 48 BCE. He fled to Egypt, hoping for refuge, but was assassinated on the orders of the young pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. Lucas: And that's the tragic arc: Pompey the Great, who had saved Rome from pirates and kings, ended up beheaded on a beach in Egypt by a teenage king trying to curry favor with Caesar. Luna: It's almost Shakespearean. Lucas: It is. And it raises a question that's relevant even today: when does private ambition become a threat to public institutions? The First Triumvirate was a classic example of people using democratic processes for personal gain, and it ultimately destroyed the system. Lucas: You know, doing episodes like this — where we dig into the moral complexities of history — it reminds me why we make this show. It's ad-free, listener-supported, and we try to bring these stories to life without commercial interruption. Luna: Yeah, and if today's episode felt worth a coffee to you, there's a link for that. Lucas: Right — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's all it takes to keep us going, and we're grateful for every bit of support. Lucas: Back to Pompey. One of the interesting footnotes is that after his death, Caesar honored his memory — he had Pompey's statues restored, and he even spared many of Pompey's supporters. It was a gesture of reconciliation, but the Republic was already gone. Luna: So in a way, Pompey's career shows how the Republic's own tools — extraordinary commands, client armies — ended up being used against it. Lucas: Absolutely. The Senate gave Pompey unprecedented powers because they needed him, but they couldn't control him afterward. And the same pattern repeated with Caesar. The Republic had no mechanism to rein in its own most successful generals. Lucas: There's also the personal dimension. Pompey was a brilliant organizer and tactician, but he wasn't a great politician. He could win wars, but he couldn't navigate the Senate's factions. He thought he could outmaneuver his rivals by sheer prestige, but prestige alone doesn't beat a determined opponent like Caesar. Luna: It's a cautionary tale, isn't it? Lucas: It is. And it's one of those stories that feels eerily familiar every time political institutions weaken and strongmen emerge. Pompey wasn't a villain — he was a product of his system. But by the end, he couldn't save what he had once helped destroy.