Pompey the Great: The Roman Alexander

by Lee Fratantuono

Pompey’s career in command began at a young age, taking control of his deceased father’s legions in support of Sulla during the civil war with Marius. A precocious and ambitious talent, he held repeated commands before he was the legal age. Sulla called him ‘the teenage butcher’. He served in the Sertorian War in Spain (recovering from an early defeat), helped crush Spartacus’ revolt then freed the Eastern Mediterranean from the depradations of Cilician pirates in a matter of weeks. He brought a victorious end to the long-running Third Mithridatic War and brought the whole of Asia Minor, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Judea under Roman influence by a mix of force and diplomacy. For good reason he was hailed even in his own lifetime as the ‘Roman Alexander’ and Lee Fratantuono gives these events the detailed coverage they deserve.

All this came before the events for which he is usually remembered: his great civil war against Julius Caesar. There is detailed analysis of the opening moves in Italy, Pompey’s victory over Caesar at Dyrrhachium and the climactic battle at Pharsalus in September 48 BC. Pompey was defeated, fled ignominiously and was assassinated, leaving his two sons to carry on the war.

384 pages, Hardcover

Published February 5, 2025

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastically readable but weighty and academically sound life of the great Roman hero. It certainly has a slight sympathy for Pompey throughout it but not entirely without reason - the theme is that he was a stalwart Republican who turned his back on many chances to seize sole power when at his height and was poorly rewarded for his loyalty to the state. Hard to argue against it!

It really drills down into his earlier career and puts it all into a wider Roman setting. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a student of the period in history and the man himself.

The one thing is that it was very badly edited - it had not had a line edit and certainly not a copy edit. Typos, missed words and misused words were littered throughout - “that” rather than “than”, “to, an, and” omitted when needed. It was a constant irritation in what was otherwise a great book.