Pompey - Early Life and Political Debut

Early Life and Political Debut

Pompey's father, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, was a wealthy landed Italian provincial from Picenum, one of the homines novi (new men). Pompeius Strabo ascended the traditional cursus honorum, becoming quaestor in 104 BC, praetor in 92 BC and consul in 89 BC, and acquired a reputation for greed, political double-dealing and military ruthlessness. He supported Sulla's traditionalist optimates against the popularist general Marius in the first Marian-Sullan war.

He died during the Marian siege against Rome in 87 BC, either as a casualty of pandemic plague, or struck by lightning, or possibly both. In Plutarch's account, his body was dragged from its bier by the mob. His twenty year-old son Pompey inherited his estates, his political leanings and the loyalty of his legions.

Pompey had served two years under his father's command, and had participated in the final acts of the Marsic Social War against the Italians. He returned to Rome and was prosecuted for misappropriation of plunder: his betrothal to the judge's daughter, Antistia, secured a rapid acquittal.

For the next few years, the Marians had possession of Italy. When Sulla returned from campaigning against Mithridates in 83 BC, Pompey raised three Picenean legions to support him against the Marian regime of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo.

Sulla and his allies displaced the Marians in Italy and Rome: Sulla, now Dictator of Rome, was impressed by the young Pompey's self-confident performance. He addressed him as imperator and offered him his stepdaughter, Aemilia Scaura, in marriage. Aemilia – already married and pregnant – divorced her husband and Pompey divorced Antistia. Though Aemilia died in childbirth soon after, the marriage confirmed Pompey's loyalty and greatly boosted his career.