Book 2, letter 19
Part 2 of 3
To Cicero, on
Pompey the Great
Pompey
*
Enough about
Sulla (I will have to write a letter all about him somewhere down the
line) but for now, back to Pompey.
There are a few
stories that serve to illustrate something of the character of the
man, and in describing him, something of the nature of his society is
also revealed. There is the tale of Flora, a famous courtesan, who
proudly told of how she would be covered with bite marks after having
made love with Pompey. Flora also recounts that one of Pompey's
friends, Geminius, fell in love with her. She rejected him, telling
him that she was in love with Pompey. However, Geminius spoke with
Pompey, who then turned Flora over to him. “But afterwards he
(Pompey) would never
have anything to do with her or even meet her; and she herself, far
from taking that as a courtesan might be expected to to, was ill for
a long time with grief and longing for him.”
Then
there is the tragic tale of Aemelia, this taken from the 1906, Dryden
translation of Plutarch's biography of Pompey:
Now, when
Sylla had brought all Italy under his dominion, and was proclaimed
dictator, he began to reward the rest of his followers, by giving
them wealth, appointing them to offices in the State, and granting
them freely and without restriction any favors they asked for. But as
for Pompey, admiring his valor and conduct, and thinking that he
might prove a great stay and support to him hereafter in his affairs,
he sought means to attach him to himself by some personal alliance,
and his wife Metella joining in his wishes, they two persuaded Pompey
to put away Antistia, and marry Æmilia, the step-daughter of Sylla,
borne by Metella to Scaurus her former husband, she being at that
very time the wife of another man, living with him, and with child by
him. These were the very tyrannies of marriage, and much more
agreeable to the times under Sylla, than to the nature and habits of
Pompey; that Æmilia great with child should be, as it were, ravished
from the embraces of another for him, and that Antistia should be
divorced with dishonor and misery by him, for whose sake she had been
but just before bereft of her father. For Antistius was murdered in
the senate, because he was suspected to be a favorer of Sylla for
Pompey’s sake; and her mother, likewise, after she had seen all
these indignities, made away with herself, a new calamity to be added
to the tragic accompaniments of this marriage, and that there might
be nothing wanting to complete them, Æmilia herself died, almost
immediately after entering Pompey’s house, in childbed.
The
above anecdote serves to illustrate something that I don't think is
well understood about arranged political marriages. Everyone is
oppressed, not just the women. Pompey was forced by Sulla to divorce
his wife Antistia. Pompey had originally married Antistia as part of
a private arrangement with the judge presiding over a corruption case
in which Pompey was the accused. So this first marriage was possibly
a bribery deal with the judge in order to secure Pompey's acquittal.
Earlier in his life, Pompey had really been in love with Flora, but
something his friend Geminius said had convinced him to forgo his own
feelings and give her up to him. Then when Sulla took power, Pompey
was forced to divorce Antistia, and marry an already married and
pregnant woman, who died in childbirth shortly after arriving in
Pompey's house.
Nobody
wins in this sort of situation. Politically arranged marriages are
supposed to solidify alliances and ensure lasting peace, but they
often seem to be no different from hostage taking in military
conquests. The women and men forced into these marriages are
hostages, kept to ensure the continued obedience of the husbands in
service to those in positions of greater power. Let us not forget
that it was Sulla's wife Metella who supported the arrangement,
selling off her own daughter (from a previous marriage) to Pompey in
order to reinforce Pompey's obedience to Sulla, and at the same time
to secure Aemelia's position as a daughter-in-law to the new
Dictator.
Scaurus
lost his wife Aemelia and his unborn child to the machinations of
Sulla and Metella. Pompey was forced into a divorce, and into a
second arranged marriage. Aemilia was forced to divorce her husband,
and died giving birth in the home of a stranger who was the ally of a
man responsible for the wholesale murder of thousands of Roman
citizens. It's just horrible for everyone.
Also,
since I'm a suspicious sort of person, Aemilia's death in childbirth
could really be a cover story for her murder. Her death serving as
another level of threat to ensure Pompey's obedience, or to terrify
Scaurus into keeping his mouth shut. That might be stretching the
story too far, but I wouldn't put anything past Sulla who was very
open about his methods of control.
So
Cicero, this was Pompey, your friend and ally.
There
is a lot more to his story that I still wish to discuss, but I want
to read a little more before continuing...
*
Cicero,
it's been a few days, I'm still reading through your letters, and
studying more of Pompey's life via Plutarch's biography of him. I
even watched an Italian movie called “Caesar and the Pirates”,
which had scenes of some of the things Plutarch had to say about the
Pirates, but unfortunately he movie didn't show anything of Pompey or
of his successful war against them. It was just the story of Caesar
and Calpurnia. I've begun writing a letter to Caesar, do you mind me
writing to him? I know that in the end you hated him and were over
the moon with joy at his murder, but the more I learn of his life,
the more reasons I find for respecting him and taking great interest
in his decisions and philosophy. Plus, your brother Quintus served
with Caesar in Gaul for years, and Caesar has a lot to say about him,
praising his actions in the war...but all of that can wait.
Let's
get back to Pompey.
Pompey
seems quite famous for his success against the Pirates, and Plutarch
has some choice things to say about this chapter of his life, and
about pirate culture.
“They were
certainly formidable enough; but what excited the most indignation
was the odious arrogance of it all – the gilded sails, the purple
awnings, the silvered oars – the general impression that they were
delighting in this way of life and priding themselves on their evil
deeds. Roman supremacy was brought into contempt by their
flute-playing, their stringed instruments, their drunken revels along
every coast, their seizures of high-ranking officials, and the
ransoms which they demanded for captured cities. It may be stated as
a fact that the pirates had more than 1,000 ships and that the cities
captured by them amounted to 400. They offered strange sacrifices of
their own at Olympus, where they celebrated secret rites or
mysteries, among which were those of Mithras. These Mithraic rites,
first celebrated by the pirates, are still celebrated today.”
So
these were the pirates originating from Cilicia. Cilicia which you,
Cicero, were the successful and lauded governor of, in later years.
All roads, as they say, lead to Rome. Also, curiously enough,
Mithras is by some scholars said to be a religious figure whose myths
are mirrored almost perfectly with those of the later Jesus Christ.
Mithras was the son of an almighty Sun God, Mithras died and was
resurrected...but I'm not going to get into that here.
Mithras
The
Pirates were also famed for their treatment of Roman prisoners.
“If a
prisoner cried out that he was Roman and gave his name, they (the
pirates) would pretend to be absolutely terrified; they would smite
their thighs with their hands and fall down at his feet, begging him
to forgive them. The prisoner, seeing them so humble and hearing
their entreaties, would believe that they meant what they said. They
would then put Roman boots on his feet and clothe him in a Roman toga
in order, they said, that there should be no mistake about his
identity in the future. And so they would play with him for some
time, getting all the amusement possible out of him until, in the
end, they would let down a ship's ladder when they were far out to
sea and tell him that he was quite free to go and that they wished
him a pleasant journey. If he objected, then they threw him
overboard themselves and drowned him.”
Because
the civil wars had so occupied the Romans, the pirates had
essentially taken control of the whole Mediterranean sea and their
domination thus threatened to breakdown the entire Roman supply
network. Pompey was then voted in with a sort of temporary
dictatorship, granting him absolute power over the entire sea, and
for 50 miles extending inland along all the coastlines.
I
am continually fascinated by the practice of democratically electing
dictators to fulfill certain essential tasks, and even more fascinated
by the number of these dictators who, their job done, gave up the
absolute power they were granted, thus restoring democracy to the
people. Pompey was one of these, though his election was not without
it's controversy. Every senator opposed the granting of such power
to Pompey, every senator except one. Caesar, who, having already
been captured by pirates when he was a young man, either had a
personal grudge, or as Plutarch suggests, was currying favour with
the people by opposing the Senate. I suppose that both could be
true.
Pompey
was granted 500 ships, 120,000 regular infantry and 5,000 cavalry,
with which he divided up the entire Mediterranean into thirteen
sections, and entrusting each section to a subordinate commander, he
was able to completely defeat the pirates in every region in a mere
forty days. In his conquest, many of the pirates surrendered and
Pompey took huge numbers of prisoners, but instead of selling them
into slavery, he did something that I find quite remarkable.
“As regard
the prisoners Pomey never even entertained the idea of putting them
to death; on the other hand there were great numbers of them, they
were poor and used to war; so that he did not think it would be wise
to let them go and allow them to disperse or else to reorganise again
into bands. He reflected, therefore, that by nature man neither is
nor becomes a wild or unsocial creature; it is rather the case that
the habit of vice makes him become something which by nature he is
not, and on the other hand he can be made civilised again by precept
and by example and be a change of place and of occupation; in fact
even wild beasts, given a measure of gentle treatment, loose their
savage and intractable qualities. With all this in mind, he decide
therefore to transfer the men from the sea to the land, to give them
a taste of civilised life and to get them used to living in cities
and cultivating the land. Some of them were received by the small
and half-populated cities of Cilicia which, on admitting them to
citizenship, were given additional land. Many were settled by Pompey
in the city of Soli which had recently been devastated by King
Tigranes of Armenia and which he now restored. Most of them however,
were given a place to live in at Dyme in Achaea. Which was at that
time very underpopulated and had a lot of good land.”
So,
Cicero, with this tale in mind, I can understand what you might have
seen in Pompey, and why you might have desired to keep his friendship
and to treat him with respect and deference. He seems to have been
powerful, capable, intelligent and above all, able to respect the
Republic above his own desires for glory and power, or revenge.
Pompey did in fact step down from his position as temporary dictator
once his conquest of the pirates was complete. Pompey seems honest,
hard working, willing to serve Rome's interests and to make personal
sacrifices to ensure the continuation of those old and great
traditions that you, Cicero, are so proud of.
But
that's not where the story ends, is it Cicero...?
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