Pompey
Pompey, full name Gnaeus Porn peius Magnus (106-48 BC). Roman soldier and politician, whose early military successes made him Rome’s leading general. After a brilliant campaign to clear the Mediterranean Sea of pirates (67 BO, he defeated Rome’s old enemy Mithridates. In 61 BC he formed the first triumvirate, a coalition of three joint rulers, with Ceasar and Crassus. Although he married Caesar’s daughter Julia, his support of the aristocratic senate made him Caesar’s opponent in the civil war. Defeated at Pharsalus (48 BO, he fled to Egypt, where he was murdered. Pope, Alexander (1688-1744). British poet, noted mainly for his satires. The son of a Catholic draper, he had a tubercular curvature of the spine and grew to only 135 cm. He started writing at an early age and made his name with the Essay on Criticism (1711). His subsequent works include the mock epic The Rape of the Lock (1714), The Dunciad (1728, revised 1743), a biting satire on human pretensions, and Essay on Man (1733), a long philosophical poem. He also published successful translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
