Gnaeus Pompey Magnus (Rome Character) - Character History of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

Character History of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

He is an elderly general who in his younger years was a Spanish and Syrian conqueror. He is a co-Consul and Interim leader of the Republic who chooses to side with the patricians. He is also a friend and mentor to Caesar. When Caesar defies the Senate and enters Rome he retreats to southern Italy and later Greece to gather reinforcements. After initially outwitting and trapping Caesar in Macedonia, his army is defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus and later disintegrates, with Cicero and Brutus surrendering and Cato and Scipio fleeing to Africa. Pompey heads for Egypt with his family and some mercenaries, intending to raise a second army. Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, who had escaped a desert island on a makeshift raft, are found by Pompey. Rather than capturing him and bringing him to Caesar, Vorenus is convinced by Pompey's demeanor that the general is broken and allows him to leave. Pompey reaches Egypt where he is greeted by a Roman soldier who promptly murders him in front of his family. His head is later presented to Julius Caesar by the Egyptians as a "gift"; Caesar is outraged, viewing it as an assault on a Roman consul, and demands that the head be given a proper burial and that the soldier who did the execution be delivered to him; this is historically accurate, as the real Gaius Julius is recorded as having desired that Pompey be recovered alive.