Was Pompey the best of the first triumvirate? I'd say so. If you disagree why?
He styled his hair after Alexander the Great. He took the title Magnus before he had even won a battle.
Highly insecure
>>329765
I eventually got what he thought was Alexander's cloak too. But yeah insecurity was probably his biggest flaw. But that drove him to do quite a few feats.
Pompey seems alot like McClellan, a good administrator and logistician, but crap in the cut and thrust of battle.
Caesar had the best prose
Pompey was defeated by two different men
Caesar was only defeated by one
Ceaser: 1
Pompey: 0
>>329765
True. He was very arrogant from his time serving with his father Strabo in the Social War, and this led to his underestimation of Sertorius and his humiliating defeat in his first few battles during the Sertorian War. Then he learned from his mistakes and pretty much never fought a battle without numerical superiority.
>>329828
Pompey's most stellar feat to date is the destruction of Mediterranean piracy. His conquest of Pontus was just mopping up after Lucullus did all the heavy lifting. It was Caesar who with his army alone conquered fully for Rome more than 300,000 square miles, increasing her territory by more than 20%
Caesar: 2
Pompey: 0
>>330004
As a Ceasarian myself, you can't forget about what Pompey did under Sulla
>>330107
Exactly, as an arrogant kid facing dithering old men and incompetents. Pompey was a good, charismatic general, certainly, but as soon as he faced 9/10 Sertorius he had to resort to trickery to win in the end.
Not that Caesar ever actually faced anybody stellar either, but he did regularly thrash armies 50% bigger than his own, something Pompey only did during the course of Sulla's second civil war.
What I'd like for there to have been is a war between Sulla and Marius, each physically and mentally healthy. Or Sulla and Caesar.
>>330130
>before entering politics
Nigger Caesar was already in neck deep by then, he was supreme pontiff and had already been consul. Rather say that he needed to accrue military prestige and money to compete against Pompey without having to rely on Crassus's wealth (which had started to look puny after Pompey had come back from Pontus with Mithridates's treasury).
>>330004
>destruction of Mediterranean piracy
That's his biggest PR stunt rather than biggest feat. He essentially bribed some of the pirates to lay low for a time,which allowed him to claim that he dealt with the problem. Piracy existed long after Pompey was gone and even had a sort of a golden age during the Second Triumvirate. Ironically Pompey's own son was one of the chief pirate lords.
>>330130
>Consolidate wealth
Thats one way to say he was hugely in debt
>>330652
>implying either could take on Sulla
>>329739
rich man-child
>>330686
Whelp then...that does explain the resurgence. But apparently he brought a lot of booty back, and piracy is a lucrative business. I really can't believe that they would lay low for a decade. First off Pompey would've had to pay them a king's ransom each, and then they would've had to be true to their word. Nah, I think he wrecked them.
>>330771
Whoah there lad, I'm on your side, I just think it would be entertaining to see the Populares' shit pushed in.
Also,
>all those Italians at the Colline Gate
>"Populares"
Holy fuck, if they had won they would have torched the city, Marius along with it.
Captcha: select all images of mountains
One of them is literally Mount Praeneste
So we can agree Crassus was the shittiest of the three.
>>333124
>secretly commits arson and just happens by with a private slave fire brigade, which only puts the fire out after buying the valuable property at rock bottom emergency prices
Yep, we can safely say he was a piece of shit. Parthians did Rome a service killing him.
>>329739
Sextus Pompey was a better general then his dad.
>>333616
>lost to the Parthians so badly that rumors that his captured troops are the only Romans to eventually meet Han Chinese
You know you're in it deep when you're taken that far from Rome.
>>334900
The entire Roman force under Valerian that didn't get wiped out and obliterated were made to use their engineering skills to build the city of Nishapur and then they were settled and integrated into the empire.
Pretty neat for Principate Romans.
>>334796
Bullshit, Sextus fought of a few decent generals then Agrippa came in and fucked him up
>>335026
Bullshit nothing, Sextus managed to even confound Agrippa at least once and make a fool out of Octavian and Antony several times. The guy had a great amount of potential if not for his inability to take decisive action later on.
The kid was a great general.
>>335026
Same with Old Pompey, except that Sertorius fucked his shit up way earlier in his career. The kid lasted half as long but burned twice as bright.
>>329794
He won many battles. His tactical thinking was pretty conventional, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you have a superior doctrine and greater resources. He came off looking bad against Caesar, but that's not really fair to him because Caesar was some kind of alien genius in disguise. Caesar was also lucky when it counted. Things could have turned out differently.
Tactical genius is one way to win a war, but Hannibal Barca showed us that this alone is not sufficient. Pompey had organizational genius, which backed up by Rome was nearly unstoppable. Until he met a guy with both...
He was also getting on in years when the fateful showdown came. Remember to consider your sources when studying Pompey. If they were working for, or under the watchful eye of, the Principate then they are not likely to give you an accurate depiction of the man.
>>335040
He never defeated Agrippa
>>335140
Certainly true. Even though he apparently cut a fine figure into his 40's, apparently Julia grew on him, and her death led to an apathy of mind and body.
