The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #174

00:00:00.480 Hello and welcome to this episode of Epochs, where I shall be continuing my narrative of

00:00:05.380 the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, focusing on Pompey and Caesar. Last time I

00:00:11.200 left off talking about the early life of Pompey, I shall continue with that for a few more

00:00:16.440 bits of Plutarch, he's mainly Plutarch, for Pompey's early life, and I'll either keep

00:00:21.580 doing that for the whole rest of this episode, or at some point, if I catch up with the year

00:00:26.280 when Caesar starts appearing and doing things, I'll switch over to Caesar again in Plutarch,

00:00:32.280 both the early lives, it's really Plutarch, I'm afraid, Appian only really picks up the

00:00:37.080 story once higher politics and things are going on, so for the early life of both Pompey

00:00:41.640 and Caesar, it is Plutarch. So we'll see how far we get, I hope you enjoy it. Okay, let's

00:00:46.400 dive right in. If you remember last time I left off where Pompey had had some great successes

00:00:51.700 in Sicily and North Africa, he was still a very young man, still in his early mid-twenties,

00:00:57.100 so I'll pick up after he had conquered Sulla's enemies in North Africa and then subjugated the

00:01:03.200 king of Numidia, Plutarch tells us. On his return to Eutica, which is not far from Carthage, right

00:01:08.340 near what was Carthage, on his return to Eutica, he was given a letter from Sulla, instructing

00:01:13.700 him to send his army back to Italy, except for one legion, with which he was to remain himself

00:01:18.740 in Africa, until another general came out to supersede him. This was a message which

00:01:23.280 grieved and distressed Pompey very much, but he did not show his feelings openly.

00:01:28.060 You wonder how Plutarch knows that. A quick note, just to say, Plutarch was writing quite

00:01:33.240 a long time after Pompey, decades and decades, nearly a hundred odd years later, so, well,

00:01:38.620 more than a hundred years later. And Plutarch never really tells us what sources he was using.

00:01:42.960 We can only imagine Plutarch was, did have access to all sorts of sources which are lost to

00:01:48.400 us. The archives, the Roman archives, lots of historians which just didn't survive through

00:01:54.880 the millennia to us. So, how he got sort of inside information, essentially. We don't

00:02:00.340 know. Occasionally he will mention a name of a previous source, perhaps a primary source

00:02:05.260 that actually lived during the age of whatever he's talking about, but largely not. And even

00:02:11.160 when he does mention the name to us, it's sort of just a name. You know, scholars and historians

00:02:15.200 mark it down as a lost history, and that's about all we can do. Anyway, he continues.

00:02:20.480 Pompey was distressed, but didn't show his feelings openly. His army, on the other hand,

00:02:24.640 made their indignation perfectly clear. When Pompey urged them to go home before him,

00:02:29.280 they shouted out against Sulla, and declaring that they would never forsake their general,

00:02:33.840 told Pompey not to trust himself to the tyrant. That's dodgy. If Sulla hears of that, he's not going to be happy.

00:02:40.560 As for Pompey, he tried first to calm the men down by speaking to them in a reasonable way,

00:02:45.600 but when this had no effect on them, he came down from the platform where he stood,

00:02:49.760 and retired to his tent in tears. The soldiers, however, seized hold of him and made him stand

00:02:54.720 on the platform again. And so it went for a long time, with the army urging him to stay there in

00:02:59.520 command, and Pompey begging them to obey the orders, and not to start a mutiny. Because if they'd

00:03:05.360 mutinied, Pompey would have been in deep trouble at that point. You know, it might have been his head.

00:03:11.840 So he really didn't want the men to mutiny, and Sulla to find out about it. Finally, as they became

00:03:17.200 more and more urgent and noisy in their demands, Pompey swore solemnly that he would kill himself

00:03:23.600 if they forced him to act as they wished. And even then, the clamour only gradually died down.

00:03:28.480 The first news of this that came to Sulla was to the effect that Pompey had revolted,

00:03:33.120 and he remarked to his friends that he was evidently fated, now that he was an old man,

00:03:38.400 to have boys for his antagonists. He said this because Marius II, who was quite a young man,

00:03:43.840 that's the young Marius, the Marius's son, had caused him much trouble, and involved him in very

00:03:50.800 great danger. However, when he learned the truth, and saw that everyone was hurrying out of Rome to

00:03:55.920 welcome Pompey, and to show their goodwill by escorting him back to the city, he quickly decided to

00:04:01.440 outdo them all. He went out himself to meet him, and after greeting him in the warmest possible manner,

00:04:07.120 addressed him in a loud voice with the name of Magnus, or The Great, and told all those who were

00:04:12.800 present to salute him in the same way. Others say that this title was first given to him in Africa

00:04:18.560 by the whole army, and that Sulla's confirmation of it merely gave it weight and force. Pompey himself,

00:04:24.240 however, was the last of all to make use of it. It was only after a long time when he was sent to

00:04:29.680 Spain as pro-consul to operate against Sertorius, that he began to sign letters and decrees as

00:04:35.760 Pompeius Magnus. By this time, the title had become well known, and the use of it could not cause offence.

00:04:42.000 So Pompey showing a bit of humility there. In this connection, one cannot help feeling

00:04:47.120 respect and admiration for the ancient Romans. These titles and surnames of theirs were not only given as

00:04:53.120 reward, but for success in war or in military leadership. Achievements in civil life and the

00:04:58.720 abilities of statesmen were also honoured by them. In two such cases, the title of Maximus, or The

00:05:04.400 Greatest, was bestowed by the people. On Valerius for his services, in bringing the people and the

00:05:10.240 senate together when there was a rift between them. And on Fabius Rullus, because he expelled from the

00:05:15.920 senate a number of people who were descended from ex-slaves and had got themselves enrolled as

00:05:21.120 senators because of their wealth. Those are characters from much earlier in Roman history.

00:05:25.840 Pompey now asked for a triumph. The request was opposed by Sulla, who pointed out that legally this

00:05:31.280 was an honour which could be given to a consul and a praetor, but to no one else. For this reason,

00:05:37.280 the first of the Scipios, after his victorious action against the Carthaginians in Spain, actions

00:05:42.960 which were on a bigger scale and more important than anything Pompey had done, did not ask for a

00:05:47.200 triumph because he was neither a consul nor a praetor. And if Pompey, who had scarcely grown a

00:05:52.800 beard as yet and was too young even to be a senator, were to ride into Rome in a triumphal procession,

00:05:58.880 people would be angry not only with Sulla's government but also with Pompey himself for

00:06:03.680 receiving such an honour. Therefore, so Sulla said to Pompey, his request could not be allowed and he

00:06:09.520 would oppose him and put a stop to his ambitious plans if he refused to give way. Pompey, however,

00:06:14.880 was not in the least frightened. That's quite remarkable. He asked Sulla to bear in mind the

00:06:20.560 fact that more people worshipped the rising than the setting sun. Bit rude. Implying that while his

00:06:27.600 own power was on the increase, that of Sulla was growing less and less. That's very brave to say

00:06:32.880 something like that to Sulla. Sulla has people killed to such insolence. Sulla did not hear these words

00:06:39.440 distinctly, but the looks and gestures of those who had heard them showed him how astonished they were.

00:06:45.120 And he asked what it was that had been said. When he was told what it was, he was astonished

00:06:50.160 at Pompey's audacity and cried out twice in succession. Let him have his triumph. You know,

00:06:56.080 like your moxie kid. All right, we'll do it. Others too were angry and indignant at the idea.

00:07:04.240 And in order to annoy them all the more, Pompey is said to have planned to make his triumphal entry

00:07:09.920 in a chariot drawn by four elephants. He had brought over from Africa a number of elephants,

00:07:14.720 which he had captured from the kings. However, the city gate was too narrow and so he had to give up

00:07:19.920 this idea and fall back on the conventional horses. And when his soldiers, who had not got a large

00:07:24.960 reward as they expected, showed a tendency to mutiny and to disturb the proceedings, Pompey declared that

00:07:31.040 it was a matter of complete indifference to him. He would rather forgo his triumph than try to curry

00:07:35.600 favour with his troops. It was on this occasion that Servilius, a man of great distinction,

00:07:40.720 and one who had been very much opposed to Pompey's triumph, said,

00:07:43.840 Now I see that Pompey really is great and does deserve his triumph. It's as though Pompey considers

00:07:48.560 himself too important to be putting down mutinies anymore. That sort of thing's below him.

00:07:53.920 It is clear too that at this time Pompey could easily have become a member of the Senate

00:07:58.160 if he had wished to do so. But Pompey was not anxious for this.

00:08:01.520 His pursuit of glory, as they say, always took an unlikely or an unusual course. And in fact,

00:08:07.760 there would not have been anything very surprising in his becoming a senator before he had reached the

00:08:12.560 proper age. The really dazzling honour was to have a triumph when he was not a senator at all.

00:08:18.160 This was something which had a considerable effect in making him popular among the ordinary people,

00:08:23.200 who were delighted to find that after his triumph he was still officially included among the equestrian order.

00:08:28.800 That is quite remarkable, isn't it? It's like having a presidential ticker tape parade without ever

00:08:33.840 having been president or something, you know. And again, that's one of my favourite anecdotes of Pompey.

00:08:39.280 The fact that he asked for a triumph from Sulla. He shouldn't be allowed to have one. Sulla said no.

00:08:44.800 And he just said, I'm going to have my triumph, old man. And Sulla said, all right, you've got it.

00:08:50.640 I mean, again, it speaks of a charisma, doesn't it? Sort of a cheeky, a likeable cheekiness.

00:08:58.800 You know, some people can really, really push their luck and even be rude. But people like you all the

00:09:04.960 more for it sometimes, you know. Sometimes people that are extremely good at roasts, comedy roasts,

00:09:10.320 for example, it doesn't cause offence. People think you're funny and they like you all the more.

00:09:15.120 Anyway, Plutarch continues. Sulla was far from pleased when he saw how Pompey's reputation and

00:09:20.720 power were growing, but he was ashamed to interfere and so did nothing about it. Again,

00:09:25.840 he doesn't want to show resentment. It's sort of beneath you to respond in a way. That's how Sulla's

00:09:32.000 seeing it. Very sort of haughty. Probably the right way to play it though. He did show his annoyance,

00:09:37.040 however, on one occasion. This was when, acting in direct opposition to Sulla's wishes,

00:09:42.240 Pompey had got Lepidus elected to the consulship by helping him in his canvassing and using his own

00:09:47.760 personal popularity to win the support of the people for Lepidus. When Sulla saw Pompey leaving

00:09:52.720 the forum with a great crowd following him, he said, Young man, I can see you are delighted with

00:09:57.600 your victory. A wonderful thing indeed and a most generous action to use your influence with the

00:10:02.560 people so that Lepidus, one of the worst men living, should get more votes at the election than

00:10:07.760 Catullus, who is one of the best. It is about time, however, that you wake up and give your

00:10:13.200 attention to what is happening. What you have done is to make your opponent stronger than yourself.

00:10:17.920 Again, any sort of rebuke from Sulla should be taken very seriously. Sulla's not the sort of man

00:10:24.320 to warn you or tick you off more than once or twice before you wind up dead or at least exiled or

00:10:31.680 something. It would be very scary to be chewed out by someone like Genghis Khan or Nero or Stalin.

00:10:38.960 If you get chewed out in any way by Sulla, you know, I'd start trembling. Pompey seems to have taken

00:10:45.120 it in his stride though. Plutarch goes on. But the clearest proof that Sulla gave of his ill feeling

00:10:50.560 against Pompey was in the writing of his will. There were legacies for all his other friends,

00:10:56.320 some of whom were appointed guardians to his son. But Pompey's name was not mentioned at all.

00:11:01.520 Pompey, however, bore this in a very decent, sensible way. In fact, when Lepidus and others

00:11:07.120 tried to prevent Sulla's body from being buried in the field of Mars, or even from having a state

00:11:12.000 funeral at all, he intervened personally and saw to it that the ceremony was not only carried out in

00:11:17.920 security, but with every mark of honour. So there, without saying so, Plutarch has let us know that

00:11:22.880 Sulla's died. And if you remember the episodes on Sulla, it wasn't long after his dictatorship that

00:11:28.000 he died. His body got completely corrupted with worms or maggots or something, and then he died.

00:11:34.640 Plutarch says,

00:11:35.600 Sulla's prophecies were fulfilled shortly after his death. Lepidus tried to grasp for himself the

00:11:40.720 power which Sulla had held. Nor did he go about it in any roundabout way, with any pretense of legality.

00:11:46.960 He took up arms immediately, based himself on a revival of the old factions now long in Thebald,

00:11:53.680 or rather on what had been left of them by Sulla. His colleague, Catullus, who could count on the

00:11:59.120 support of the best and healthiest elements both in the Senate and among the people, had a reputation

00:12:04.560 for good sense and just dealing, which was second to none of the Romans of his time. On the other hand,

00:12:10.640 he was thought to be more at home in political than in military leadership. Events themselves,

00:12:15.600 therefore, seemed to call for Pompey, and Pompey was not slow in deciding which side to take.

00:12:21.040 He attached himself to the cause of the nobility and was given command of an army to operate against

00:12:26.160 Lepidus, who had already succeeded in making a large part of Italy revolt, and who, with a force

00:12:31.600 under Brutus, was in control of Cisalpine Gaul. So, we can see there, a type of civil war, very small

00:12:39.040 scale, civil war starting to break out. You know, it's a bit more than just civil unrest in Rome,

00:12:45.680 in and around the Forum. You know, Lepidus has put himself in charge of an army in Cisalpine Gaul,

00:12:51.760 and Pompey's had to raise a counter-army. So, you know, we're bouncing straight back

00:12:58.960 into the days of Marius and Sulla, it looks like, or beginning to, the first inklings of that sort of

00:13:04.400 thing. But Plutarch continues, saying, Pompey attacked and subdued with ease most of the rebel

00:13:09.840 forces. But at Mutina in Gaul, he was engaged for a long time in besieging Brutus. During this time,

00:13:16.720 Lepidus had made a quick dash on Rome, and had encamped outside the city. He demanded a second

00:13:22.400 consulship for himself, and with his huge crowd of followers, he brought the citizens to the verge of

00:13:27.680 panic. Their fears were dispelled by a letter which arrived from Pompey, stating that he had won the

00:13:33.120 war without having to fight a battle. Whether Brutus betrayed his army, or whether his army

00:13:38.400 changed sides and betrayed him, we do not know. In any case, Brutus surrendered to Pompey, and,

00:13:44.160 after having received from him a cavalry escort, retired to a small town on the Po. Here, after one

00:13:50.160 day had passed, he was put to death by Germinius, who was acting under Pompey's instructions. Pompey was

00:13:56.320 much blamed for this, for directly after Brutus' army had changed sides, he wrote to the Senate to

00:14:02.240 say that Brutus had come over to him of his own accord. And then, in a second letter, after Brutus

00:14:07.680 had been killed, he produced evidence against him. This Brutus was the father of the Brutus who,

00:14:12.960 with Cassius, killed Caesar. Neither in his own wars, nor in the manner of his death,

00:14:18.320 was the son like the father, as may be read in his life, i.e. that's Plutarch's own life of Brutus.

00:14:24.800 So, Plutarch bigging up his own writing there. See my other book, if you're interested in that.

00:14:32.880 But that is an interesting note, isn't it? That Brutus, once the actual war breaks out against

00:14:38.880 Caesar, he is on the side of Pompey. But Pompey had killed his father, basically. So that's interesting

00:14:45.120 to note how politics, when it comes down to it, or civil wars, you end up quite often making bedfellows

00:14:52.480 of people that would otherwise absolutely be your bitter enemy. But when you have to choose a side,

00:14:57.760 you might think that Brutus would side with Caesar, that he might have a vendetta in his heart against

00:15:04.400 Pompey for the rest of his days. But no, he ends up essentially siding with Pompey, Pompey's side of

00:15:12.960 the Caesar-Pompey civil war. As for Lepidus, he was driven out of Italy and crossed over to Sardinia.

00:15:18.800 There he fell ill and died of despair. The despair was not, apparently, caused by the failure of his

00:15:24.080 policy, but was due to his coming upon a letter which proved that his wife had been unfaithful to

00:15:29.040 him. So, a broken heart. Meanwhile, they hung over Rome like a cloud, the menace of Sertorius,

00:15:35.520 a very different sort of general from Lepidus. Sertorius was now in control of Spain. The poison of the

00:15:41.440 civil wars had, as it were, come to a head in him, and he represented the last stages of the disease.

00:15:48.160 He had already put an end to the careers of many inferior commanders, and was now engaged with

00:15:53.680 Metellus Pius, who was a distinguished man and a good soldier, but was considered to be handicapped

00:15:59.440 by his age, no longer quick to seize the opportunities of war, and liable to be left behind by events when

00:16:05.440 they occurred quickly and suddenly. For the methods of Sertorius were close to a robber chieftain.

00:16:10.640 His unconventional attacks, his ambushes, and his flanking movements had a disturbing effect

00:16:16.320 on a man whose whole training was in regular pitched battles, and who commanded troops which

00:16:21.440 were heavily armed and lacking in mobility. So, this Sertorius is a very interesting character.

00:16:26.720 Sertorius is one of the main characters in this period, who history doesn't end up ranking him

00:16:32.880 as highly or as importantly as people like Crassus or Pompey or Caesar, but he is sort of up there,

00:16:40.240 certainly. If you read the sources and you're familiar with the story, Sertorius is up there,

00:16:46.480 because he just seems to be a great general. He seems to be doing blitzkrieg stuff, or seems to be

00:16:52.080 doing Napoleon-style hit-and-run things. He's very creative. Caesar is known for his speed and his

00:16:59.200 creativity. He always turns up where people don't expect him to turn up. Julian the Apostate was

00:17:04.160 like that. Many great generals are like that. They turn up where you don't think they're going to,

00:17:09.440 and when you don't think they're going to, all the time, and Sertorius is one of those guys.

00:17:13.760 So, he's a great commander, someone to fear if you're against him. Plutarch goes on though,

00:17:19.680 that, quote, Pompey therefore kept his army together and tried to arrange to have himself

00:17:24.960 sent out to reinforce Metellus. Catullus ordered him to disband his troops, but instead of doing so,

00:17:30.880 he kept on making one excuse or another and remained under arms near the city until the

00:17:35.600 Senate gave him the command on the motion of Lucius Philippus. So, that's cheeky. Again,

00:17:41.200 that's sort of quite illegal, quite highly illegal. The Consul tells you to disband your army,

00:17:46.000 you're like, no, no, shan't. No, don't think I will actually, thank you very much. That's, that's,

00:17:52.080 that's pretty bad. That's more than being cheeky. That's more than bending the rules. That's completely

00:17:58.240 breaking the rules in one of the worst ways you can. But Pompey gets away with it, as always,

00:18:03.520 or nearly always. They say that on this occasion, someone in the Senate expressed surprise at the

00:18:08.960 proposal and asked whether Philippus really thought it necessary for Pompey to be sent out with the

00:18:14.480 status and power of a Consul. Not of a Consul, replied Philippus, but of the Consuls, implying

00:18:20.720 that in his view, both of the Consuls for that year were quite useless. Pompey, Pompey, he's our

00:18:26.720 man. If he can't do it, no one can. Pompey's arrival in Spain produced the effects which normally

00:18:34.160 followed the appearance of a new commander with a great reputation. The troops on the spot, with

00:18:38.880 something fresh to look forward to, became changed men. The Spanish tribes, which were not bound by

00:18:44.160 very close allegiances to Sertorius, began to grow restless and to show signs of deserting his cause.

00:18:50.080 Sertorius therefore began to make and to publicise a number of contemptuous references to Pompey.

00:18:55.280 I should only need, he said, mockingly, a cane and whip to deal with this boy, if I were not afraid

00:19:01.040 of that old woman, Metellus being the old woman. In fact, however, he watched Pompey closely, and out

00:19:07.680 of fear for him, showed much more caution than previously in his general conduct of the campaign.

00:19:13.200 As for Metellus, so Pompey's reputation is preceding him there, as for Metellus, though no one would have

00:19:19.200 expected this of him, he had become very luxury-loving and had given himself up entirely to his pleasures.

00:19:25.520 His whole character had suddenly undergone an alteration, and he was now both extravagant and

00:19:30.720 ostentatious. These defects in Metellus served to increase Pompey's reputation and made him

00:19:36.480 extraordinarily popular, since his own way of life was a model of simplicity. Not that this cost him

00:19:42.320 much effort, he was naturally a temperate character and was in complete control of his desires.

00:19:47.840 There were many changes of fortune in this war. What upset Pompey most of all was the capture of

00:19:52.880 Luro by a Sertorius. He had imagined that the enemy was surrounded and had boasted of the fact.

00:19:58.800 It then suddenly appeared that he was surrounded himself. He was afraid to move and had to look on

00:20:04.480 while the city was burned before his eyes. However, he won a victory near Valentia against Herennius

00:20:11.120 and Pertena, Roman exiles who had joined Sertorius and had been given command of armies by him and

00:20:17.040 killed more than 10,000 of their men. So just to make it clear, this Sertorius is sort of setting himself up

00:20:22.400 as a completely rogue element in the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic, that the Sertorius seems to

00:20:27.840 be trying to set himself up as almost like his own sovereign in Spain. He's not answering to the

00:20:34.560 Senate, the government of Rome in any way, and he's putting himself in charge, a complete rogue agent,

00:20:41.360 and handling affairs very well, it seems. Worryingly well from the point of Rome and the Senate and

00:20:47.600 Pompey. Plutarch goes on. Flushed with this success and full of confidence, he then hastened to engage

00:20:53.120 Sertorius himself, being eager to win a victory without Metellus having any share in it. The two

00:20:58.160 forces joined battle near the river Skuro later in the day, and both generals were anxious for

00:21:03.440 Metellus not to appear. Pompey because he wanted to fight without anyone to help him, Sertorius because

00:21:08.640 he wanted to fight without anyone to help his opponent. As it happened, the battle was indecisive,

00:21:13.840 on each side one wing won and one lost, but so far as the two generals were concerned,

00:21:19.360 Sertorius had the better of it. The troops under his personal command routed those who were opposed

00:21:24.720 to them. Pompey was less successful. He was fighting on horseback and was attacked by a tall man who was

00:21:30.560 fighting on foot. Charging at each other, they came to close quarters and each struck the other on the

00:21:35.760 head with his sword. The sword strokes, however, were not of equal force. Pompey was merely wounded,

00:21:41.280 but the hand of the antagonist was cut right off. But now enemy troops in still greater numbers bore

00:21:46.320 down on him. His own troops were already routed. He made his escape from what seemed to be a hopeless

00:21:51.920 situation by abandoning his horse to the enemy. The horse had golden ornaments on its head and other

00:21:58.000 trappings of great value, and while the enemy fought with each other over the division of spoil,

00:22:03.360 Pompey himself got away. Classic. They were more interested in the gold things on the horse

00:22:09.680 than in actually capturing or killing the enemy commander. At dawn on the following day,

00:22:14.800 both armies formed up with the intention of making certain of the victory that had so far eluded them.

00:22:19.920 By now, however, Metellus was approaching. Sertorius retired and his army scattered in

00:22:25.120 different directions. These were his usual tactics. A total dispersal of his forces, followed by a rapid

00:22:31.120 mobilization. So that at times Sertorius would be moving about the country entirely on his own,

00:22:36.400 and at other times would take the field with an army of 150,000 men, like a winter torrent suddenly

00:22:42.800 swollen with rain. When Pompey, after this battle, went to meet Metellus and they drew up near to each

00:22:48.320 other, he ordered his lictors to lower their fasces, that's the sort of axe that the lictors hold,

00:22:54.880 to show his respect for Metellus as his superior in rank. Metellus, however, would not allow this,

00:23:01.040 and in every other way too, treated Pompey with the greatest consideration. Though a man of consular

00:23:05.840 rank and Pompey's senior, he claimed no special rights for himself, except that when both armies

00:23:11.600 were encamped together, the watchword was issued to the whole camp from his tent. Usually though,

00:23:17.920 they encamped apart from each other, and indeed they were constantly finding their communications

00:23:22.880 cut and their forces separated as a result of the unpredictable tactics of Sertorius, who had a

00:23:29.280 genius for appearing almost at the same moment in a number of different places and forcing them to

00:23:34.320 fight now here and now there. In the end, by cutting off their suppliers, by laying the country waste,

00:23:40.160 and by gaining control of the sea, he drove them both out of his area of Spain and forced them to

00:23:45.280 retreat to other provinces because of lack of provisions. So that's interesting there. Pompey,

00:23:50.080 that's a defeat then, ultimately, a strategic defeat for Pompey. You know, he was sort of defeated

00:23:56.080 in battle, although not exactly. Plutarch calls it indecisive, but you know, a type of battlefield

00:24:01.440 reverse, although he wasn't completely bested or utterly routed or massacred to a man or anything

00:24:06.320 like that. He was sort of bested in battle, and then on the grander scale, strategically,

00:24:12.240 he was forced to retreat. So that's one of Pompey's, well it is Pompey's first big reversal.

00:24:18.240 So his reputation is marred a bit there. Before now, he'd been sort of completely undefeated,

00:24:23.760 and later he sort of still claims he's completely undefeated. You know, it's like the United States

00:24:29.040 claiming they've never lost a war, as if you don't count certain things like the War of 1812 or Vietnam or

00:24:34.400 something. But no, no, still, I piss off a lot of Americans by saying that. Maybe I'll cut that out.

00:24:40.320 Anyway, but Pompey has to go away and lick his wounds, essentially, and rethink the strategy and

00:24:47.920 get more men and materiel before he can keep going forward. Plutarch tells us then, quote,

00:24:53.440 By his experiences on this war, Pompey had already run through most of his private fortune.

00:24:58.960 He now asked the Senate for money and threatened to come back with his army to Italy if his request

00:25:04.720 was not granted. Lucullus was consul at this time. He was not on good terms with Pompey,

00:25:09.840 but he did everything that he could to have the money sent. This was because he was trying to get

00:25:14.320 himself appointed to the command against Mithridates, and he was afraid of giving Pompey any excuse for

00:25:20.320 returning home. Since Pompey would have liked to have left Sertorius alone and gone out against

00:25:25.280 Mithridates himself, it would be a command that would bring him much honour, and Mithridates seemed

00:25:30.800 a much easier proposition than Sertorius. About this time, however, Sertorius was treacherously

00:25:36.960 murdered by members of his own party. Pepena was the leader of these, and he now attempted to take

00:25:43.280 Sertorius' place, but though he had the advantage of the same army and the same resources, he had

00:25:48.960 none of Sertorius' talent and ability in making use of them. Pompey took the field against him

00:25:53.760 immediately, and finding that his strategy was entirely haphazard, lured him into a trap. He sent

00:25:59.200 out ten cohorts and ordered them to scatter over the plain in loose order. Pepena attacked them and was

00:26:04.960 beginning to pursue them when Pompey appeared out of the scene with his entire army. Battle was joined,

00:26:10.800 and Pompey won a complete victory. Most of Pepena's officers were killed in the battle. Pepena himself

00:26:16.800 was brought to Pompey alive, and Pompey ordered him to be put to death. Some people criticised

00:26:21.360 Pompey for this, saying that he was lacking in gratitude and had forgotten what had happened in

00:26:26.400 Sicily. In fact, however, he was showing excellent judgement and a most valuable sense of the public

00:26:31.920 interest. Pepena had come into possession of Sertorius' correspondence and offered to produce letters

00:26:38.160 from some of the most important people in Rome who, wishing to start a revolution and change

00:26:43.520 the existing form of government, had written to Sertorius, inviting him to march on Italy.

00:26:48.640 Pompey, however, was afraid that this evidence would simply be the occasion for greater wars

00:26:54.000 than the ones now ended, and so he put Pepena to death and burned the letters without even reading

00:26:58.960 them himself." That's interesting. I mean, maybe that's a smart political move. Maybe that is,

00:27:05.440 probably was, the most prudent thing to do. Pompey doesn't want the Roman world, the Roman Republic,

00:27:11.280 to be endlessly torn apart by civil war, but you would think it might be best to actually read them

00:27:16.880 himself, at least. You know, maybe not make them public, or have them reprinted, or send them back

00:27:22.560 to Rome or anything. But, probably read them yourself, I know I would, just to have the inside

00:27:27.600 track, just to have, or maybe I'm being too cynical, but you know, just to have something on

00:27:31.840 some of the other men if you need it later in life. But, but Pompey wasn't a great politician,

00:27:36.400 really. You know, we'll get into that over the coming epochs episodes. We'll see that he's,

00:27:40.720 he's naive in all sorts of ways. To watch the full video,

00:27:44.160 please become a premium member at LotusEaters.com

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - September 01, 2024

PREVIEW： Epochs #174 ｜ Pompey and Caesar： Part II

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