The meteoric career of Pompey the Great

On the reverse of this coin four laurel wreaths are depicted. For now let’s just focus on the three smaller ones. A Roman general was given a laurel wreath when he had won a major victory, and these three small wreaths symbolize the victories of Pompey the Great on three different continents: Africa, Europe and Asia.

His first victory was in the civil war of 83-82 BC when he was only about 25 years old. Pompey fought alongside his father-in-law, the Roman general Sulla, in the civil wars and was sent by him to Sicily and Africa to defeat his enemies. Despite not being of a high enough rank, Pompey demanded a triumphal procession through Rome when he returned victorious from Africa. Sulla initially declined his request, but Pompey then refused to disband his armies and even warned Sulla “that more people worshiped the rising sun than the setting sun” Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 14.3. implying that his power was increasing while Sulla’s was waning. Seemingly impressed by his daring actions, Sulla finally decided to break protocol and grant Pompey his wish.

In the following years, Sulla’s last remaining enemy wreaked havoc in Hispania (modern Spain), and again Pompey was dispatched to take care of the problem. This task turned out to be more difficult than expected, but after about 5/6 years of fighting, in 71 BC he was finally able to return home with another victory and was rewarded with a second triumphal procession. That same year, he was also named as one of the two new consuls; the highest officials in the Roman Republic. This was unprecedented: Pompey was still very young, but above all, he had not yet held the various lower offices a Roman official was supposed to hold before reaching the consulship. You can imagine that this caused resentment amongst some of the nobles of Rome.

In 66 BC, Pompey was given command of the Third War against the Pontic king, Mithridates VI Eupator, and quickly succeeded in defeating him. In reality, Mithridates’ troops had already been broken by several victories of Pompey’s commanding predecessor, but it was Pompey who got the credit. After this, Pompey marched into Syria and then Judea, where he captured Jerusalem. By 61 BC he was back in Rome, where he received his third triumphal procession on his 45th birthday. Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph (Cambridge 2007) 14-17; R.E. Smith, ‘Pompey’s Conduct in 80 and 77 B.C.’ Classical Association of Canada 14.1 (1960); Frederik Juliaan Vervaet, ’’Si neque leges neque mores cogunt’ Beyond the Spectacle of Pompeius Magnus’ Public Triumphs’ in: Carsten Hjort Lange and Frederik Juliaan Vervaet (eds.), The Roman Republican Triumph. Beyond the Spectacle (Rome 2014) 132-140.