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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1999116, member: 42773&quot;]From a vcoins email...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]358077[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&quot; --vcoins</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;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&#039;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. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />)</p><p><br /></p><p><b> Man. Acilius Glabrio </b></p><p>AR Denarius, 18 mm, 3.75 g, 6h; Rome: 49 BC</p><p>Obv.: SALVTIS; laureate head of Salus right.</p><p>Rev.: III VIR VALETV MN ACILIVS; Valetudo standing left, resting arm on column and holding snake.</p><p>Reference: Crawford 442/1a; Seaby Acilia 8; Sydenham 922, BMC 3944.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]358078[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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