Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

>"...does it serve any useful purpose to know that Pompey was the first to exhibit the slaughter of eighteen elephants in the Circus, pitting criminals against them in a mimic battle? He, a leader of the state and one who, according to report, was conspicuous among the leaders of old for the kindness of his heart, thought it a notable kind of spectacle to kill human beings after a new fashion. Do they fight to the death? That is not enough! Are they torn to pieces? That is not enough! Let them be crushed by animals of monstrous bulk! Better would it be that these things pass into oblivion lest hereafter some all-powerful man should learn them and be jealous of an act that was nowise human. O, what blindness does great prosperity cast upon our minds! When he was casting so many troops of wretched human beings to wild beasts born under a different sky, when he was proclaiming war between creatures so ill matched, when he was shedding so much blood before the eyes of the Roman people, who itself was soon to be forced to shed more. He then believed that he was beyond the power of Nature. But later this same man, betrayed by Alexandrine treachery*, offered himself to the dagger of the vilest slave, and then at last discovered what an empty boast his surname was.”
* = old time way of saying “poetic justice”. The Romans thought that his death was a just dessert.

...

HE

WAS

A

CONSUL

OF

ROME

AND

SHEEIT

Where did this downplaying of Pompey come from? Dude is like top 5 greatest Roman generals of all time and his only black mark is losing to Rome's greatest general.

It's a classic example of posthumous slander, history is always written by the winners.

SILENCE!

>cincinatus, Fabius, Scipio Africanus, Marius, Sulla,
Not even the top 5 of the Republic, maybe not even the top 10. The whole reason we remember him is for being history’s biggest irony, adored lavishly by the handful of rich guys he zealously defended, but when put in the field against a competent enemy he lost, even though he had the guy outmanned and outmaneuvered.

Sulla, Marius, Fabius are not better than Pompey. No historian will agree with that outrageous claim.

>Cincinnatus
Stop memeing.

>The whole reason we remember him is this opinion I have of him

What drives someone to be such a contrarian?

“Most historians” think this way about him

In memory of his life time he was remembered as a guy who got what was coming to him, as per Seneca here, Everyone else remembers him as the status quo darling who got thoroughly outwitted by Julius Caesar on his road to total power.

In memory of his life time we was remembered by senators that, after the fact, recognized their career depended on damning his name as a guy who gorlt what was coming to him.

Caesar was made a hero by the senate in hindsight and the few contemporary sources that survived damn him sincerely.

Care to provide some of these plethora of academics who feel Pompey was mediocre?

>At Augustus' funeral procession, pictures of him were carried as he was still widely considered as the great conqueror of the Orient. As a triumphator, he also had numerous statues in Rome, one of which was on the forum of Augustus. Though the imperial power did not honor him as much as his archenemy, who was considered a god, his reputation among many aristocrats and historians was equal or even superior to that of Caesar.

Can you imagine being so butthurt about someone that you have to write libelous prose about him 2 generations later?

Tell me about Gnaeus. Why does he wear the mask?