This Week In History: Pompey the Great

From a vcoins email...



"Gnaeus Pompeius (Magnus) was born Sept 29, 106 BC, to the warlord Pompeius Strabo. The Social Wars of the Roman Republic period saw Strabo amass a sizable army, through which he won important victories and was unwilling to disband afterward when asked by the senate. When Strabo died in 87 BC, his son essentially inherited the army his father built. He used it with great success against the Marian Party, which was in control of Rome, at the request of Lucius Cornelius Sulla while returning from the campaigns in the East against Mithradates VI during the First Mithradatic War.

Many of the Marians fled to North Africa and Sicily, leaving Italy in the hands of Pompey and Sulla. Sulla stayed behind in Italy, while Pompey was asked to hunt down the escaped Marians. When Pompey returned to Rome in 81 BC, he was awarded the title of Magnus (the Great), along with a triumphal procession. Sulla retired in 79 BC and died the following year. The consul in 78 BC, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, supported an uprising in Etruria (modern day part of central Italy) and the senate tasked the co-consul Catalus and Pompey to intervene. After their success in 77 BC, Pompey, like his father, refused to disband his army that just defeated Lepidus on request of the senate and instead took command in Spain.

While Pompey was in Spain, helping Metellus Pius deal with the rebel Quintus Sertorius, there was a slave revolt in Capua, under the leadership of a Thracian gladiator named Spartacus. This effective rebellion was finally defeated in 72 BC by Marcus Licinius Crassus. Pompey led his forces from Spain to Italy, eliminating the remainder of Spartacus’s army along the way. Crassus and Pompey shared the consulship in 70 BC. In 67 BC, Pompey went to deal with the pirates in the Mediterranean and the same Mithradates VI, who Sulla fought decades earlier. Pompey and his forces chased the Pontic king, until Pharnaces II staged a revolt and Mithradates committed suicide in 63 BC.

Pompey returned to Rome and united with Crassus and consul Julius Caesar to secretly form the First Triumvirate in 60 BC, as well as marry Caesar’s daughter, Julia in 59 BC. Although not a legally sanctioned pact, it was made effective by the three for five years. Julius Caesar pushed through legislation Pompey wanted and was given an appointment in Gaul for his efforts. The pact was renewed in 56 BC and Crassus and Pompey were elected consuls in 55 BC. With essentially limitless authority, the three divided the Roman territories – Pompey took Spain, Caesar too Gaul and Crassus took Syria so he could wage war against the Parthians. Crassus was ambushed and humiliatingly defeated in 53 BC near Carrhae.

With one of the Triumvirs gone, Pompey’s wife Julia having died in 54 BC, and Caesar racking up victories all over Gaul, the inevitable was on the horizon. Pompey was awarded sole-consulship in 52 BC to help restore order from the gang issues in Rome, as well as protecting themselves from the growing threat of Caesar’s power. As usual, the senate declared Caesar disband his armies that he just used to defeat Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Caesar refused and in January 49 BC, crossed the Rubicon, declaring war.

Caesar first invaded Italy and met little resistance. He then secured Spain and chased Pompey to Greece, where he and many of the senators had fled. After a battle at Pharsalus, where Pompey lost badly and tens of thousands of troops surrendered, the chase continued to Africa. While disembarking at Pelusium in Egypt, the day before his 58th birthday, Pompey was murdered by loyalists of Ptolemy XIII." --vcoins

Let's have a study group concerning any coinage struck during the life and times of Pompey the Great. I wish I had one of the commemorative denarii struck by his son, Sextus, but I don't. So I offer a coin struck in Rome a year before his death. (Pompey is unlikely to have seen this coin, as he was gallivanting about Egypt in his last year. I know some of you can do better than this. )

Man. Acilius Glabrio
AR Denarius, 18 mm, 3.75 g, 6h; Rome: 49 BC
Obv.: SALVTIS; laureate head of Salus right.
Rev.: III VIR VALETV MN ACILIVS; Valetudo standing left, resting arm on column and holding snake.
Reference: Crawford 442/1a; Seaby Acilia 8; Sydenham 922, BMC 3944.

 

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Once again, I was waiting for Bing to start this thread ... but JA seems to be the dude lately that's steppin' up and posting This Week in History!! (well done)

... sadly, I don't have anything to toss into this week's thread (*sigh*)

 

I have a Sextus Pompey with his janiform daddy. It's from a mixed lot and not in great shape but it's worth keeping


SEXTUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS, son of Pompey the Great
Circa 43-36 BC, Sicilian mint?
AE, 29 mm, 19.8 gm
Obv: Laureate head of Janus with features of Pompeius Magnus
Rev: Prow of galley right; [PIVS above, IMP below]
Ref: Sydenham 1044?

 

Great write up JA! Thank you!

 

I'll bet you do though. If we include any coinage related to Pompey, it opens the field. Here is a Pontic bronze minted under Mithradates VI, who committed suicide as a direct result of Pompey's harassment.

Amisos, Pontos, time of Mithridates VI.
AE 18mm; 4.6g, circa 120-63 BC.
Obv.: Bust of Mithridates as Perseus right, wing at his temple.
Rev.: Cornucopiae between two pilei (caps of the Dioskuri) each surmounted by a star; AMI-ΣOY.
Reference: SNG Stockholm 1848; SNG Cop. 161; BMC 65; Waddington 32.



(I don't like this pic at all - too much glare. It needs to be redone, but in the meantime, my apologies.)

 

It's not mine! Please read the post.

 

It is your copy-paste though!

 

There ya go.

 

and your gorgeous coins!

 

=> well, if you're gonna allow me to strut some Pontos coins, then you're correct, I have a few to toss into this week's thread!!

 

define a "few"

 

Sadly, I don't have a coin of the Pompeians to show. Instead, here's one of Sulla, who as mentioned in the OP writeup, used Pompey to great effect during his second civil war against the Marians.

This coin was struck in 82 BC by a mint travelling with Sulla in Italy as he was campaigning against Marius the Younger to make himself master of Rome. The year before that, 23-year old Pompey was married to Sulla's stepdaughter in an act sealing their alliance. Pompey's cold-bloodedness in doing away with the enemies that Sulla sent him against earned him the nickname adulescens carnifex (the young butcher).



ROMAN REPUBLIC
L. Manlius Torquatus and L. Cornelius Sulla
Denarius. 3.61g, 19mm.
Military mint moving in southern Italy with Sulla, 82 BC
Manlia 4, Crawford 367/5, Sydenham 757.
O: Helmeted head of Roma right, L. MANLI before, PRO. Q behind.
R: Sulla in triumphal quadriga right crowned by flying Victory, L. SVLLA IM in exergue.

 

SEXTUS POMPEY; GENS POMPEIA AE As
OBVERSE: MAGN above laureate janiform head with features of Pompey the Great REVERSE: PIVS above, IMP below, prow of galley right
Sicilian 43-36 BC
22.8g, 31mm
Syd 1044a, Cr479/1, Pompeia 20v, Cohen 16


L.CORNELIUS LENTULUE & C.CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS CORNELIA AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Facing head of Medusa in center of triskeles, ear of corn between each leg
REVERSE: Jupiter standing right, holding thunderbolt and eagle; LENT MAR to left, COS to right.
Rome 49 BC
3.08g, 18-16mm
Crawford 445/1b; Sear 4; Sydenham 1029; Cornelia 64a
This coin was struck by the two consuls of 49 BC. As supporters of Pompey, they
opposed Caesar, and had fled to Sicily, where this particular issue was struck

 

Hey ! got some for you here that fits the rules !


Cnaeus Pompey Jr, Denarius
Denarius minted in Corduba ? in 46-45 BC
M [POBLICI LEG] PRO PR, Helmeted head of Rome right
CN MAGNVS IMP, Spain standing right, presenting palm branch to a soldier (Pompey ?) standing left on a prow of galley
3.65 gr
Ref : HCRI # 48, RCV #1384, Cohen #1



Sextus Pompeius and Q. Nasidius, Denarius
Mint moving with Sextus Pompeius, Sicily, 42-39 BC
NEPTVNI, head of Pompey the great right, trident before head, dolphin below
Q.NASIDIVS at exergue, galley sailing right, star in upper field
3.92 gr
Ref : HCRI # 235, RCV # 1390, Crawford # 483/2, Sydenham # 1350, Cohen # 20
Ex Freeman & Sear, Ex Barry Feirstein collection
Ex Roma Numismatics



Sextus Pompey, As
As struck in Sicily c.43-36 BC
Head of Janus with features of Pompey the Great, MAGN above
Prow of galley right, PIVS IMP in field
16.57 gr
Ref : HCRI # 336, RCV #1394, Cohen #16

Q

 

Great coin's my Ancient friends...

 

thank you for the post, written by By Zachary Beasley
from Beastcoins a respectable dealer
http://www.beastcoins.com/
http://www.beastcoins.com/RomanImperial/II/Hadrian/Hadrian.htm

 

nice coins all

 

some sweet coins here indeed~!

here is my only roman coin of the period.





rublican denarius
79bc
c. naevius balbus
o: venus, SC behind
r:victory drag racing in a triga, c nae ablb in ex
rome mint
crawfird 382/1a
18.5mm
3.59g

 

WoW nice