Lives. Pompey

Introduction: why does the set text matter?

“…divino quodam consilio) to perform certain deeds for the wellbeing of the commonwealth. 46 This is particularly remarkable since Fate (with a capital F) is by and large a negative, four-letter word for Cicero: he usually doesn't hold with notions of historical destiny or necessity, only flirting with them occasionally (as here) to score rhetorical points.…”

“…10 In Cicero's survey of Pompey's career, these scary details are carefully airbrushed. 11 One peculiar feature of Cicero's praise of Pompey's unmatched scientia militaris is his insistence that it is grounded in actual experience, rather than the perusal of books: plura bello gessit quam ceteri legerunt ('he has conducted more campaigns than the rest have read of'). It is worth questioning this piece of praise a bit, especially as it comes from Cicero.…”

“…He treats each one in turn. The first quality in the list, scientia rei militaris, which is also the least complex, receives the briefest coverage: Cicero deals with it in the rest of § 28, before moving on to virtus ( § § 29-42), auctoritas ( § § [43][44][45][46], and felicitas ( § § [47][48]. (Note the unequal distribution: scientia militaris receives 1 paragraph, virtus 14, auctoritas 4, and felicitas 2: is there a rationale for this?)…”

“…Or how easily he will preserve allies and revenues with a command and an army, who has defended them by his mere name and reputation? [46] Come now: that matter reveals the great prestige of this same individual among the enemies of the Roman people, namely that from locations so far away and so far apart they all surrendered themselves in so short a time to this man alone; that legates from the commonwealth of the Cretans, even though there was a general and an army of ours on their island, came almost to the ends of the earth to Gnaeus Pompeius and said that all the civic communities of the Cretans were willing to surrender themselves to him. And again: did not that Mithridates himself send an ambassador all the way to Spain to the same Gnaeus Pompeius?…”

“…10 According to Plutarch, the lady's father was killed for his family-alliance with Pompey; her mother committed suicide. 11 Then Sulla came back from his war against Mithridates VI in 83, at which point Pompey, who was 23 years of age and a privatus at the time (i.e. someone who did not hold a public office), raised an army from his father's veterans in Picenum and joined Sulla (along, it must be said, with several other privati with private armies).…”