Pompeius (Greek: Πομπήιος, died 532) was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire and nephew of the Emperor Anastasius I (reigned 491–518).
His military career is considered part of a pattern of family patronage employed by most Emperors and Empresses of the period.
[5] Romana by Jordanes records that Pompeius and his troops suffered defeat at a battle near Adrianople, facing foreign invaders.
In 519, Pompeius, Vitalian and Justinian (the future emperor) met the papal envoys at some distance from Constantinople and escorted them for the rest of the way.
[6] While Cyril of Scythopolis, John Malalas and the Chronicon Paschale all agree that Pompeius held the rank of patrician during the late 520s, it is unknown when he gained the title.
[7] Pompeius figures prominently in Procopius' account of the Nika riots (532): "On the fifth day of the insurrection in the late afternoon the Emperor Justinian gave orders to Hypatius and Pompeius, nephews of the late emperor, Anastasius, to go home as quickly as possible, either because he suspected that some plot was being matured by them against his own person, or, it may be, because destiny brought them to this.
But they feared that the people would force them to the throne (as in fact fell out), and they said that they would be doing wrong if they should abandon their sovereign when he found himself in such danger.
So the whole population ran to them, and they declared Hypatius emperor and prepared to lead him to the market-place to assume the power.
But the wife of Hypatius, Mary, a discreet woman, who had the greatest reputation for prudence, laid hold of her husband and would not let go, but cried out with loud lamentation and with entreaties to all her kinsmen that the people were leading him on the road to death.
But since the throng overpowered her, she unwillingly released her husband, and he by no will of his own came to the Forum of Constantine, where they summoned him to the throne; then since they had neither diadem nor anything else with which it is customary for a king to be clothed, they placed a golden necklace upon his head and proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans.
Then, while Pompeius was weeping and uttering pitiable words (for the man was wholly inexperienced in such misfortunes), Hypatius reproached him at length and said that those who were about to die unjustly should not lament.
"[8] The execution is confirmed by Marcellinus Comes, Zacharias Rhetor, Evagrius Scholasticus, John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale, Victor of Tunnuna, Theophanes the Confessor, and Joannes Zonaras.
[7] John Bagnell Bury noted "that The Emperor, suspicious though he was, probably believed that they were not morally guilty, but feared that they would be used as tools in future conspiracies.
She had personally met Sabbas the Sanctified in 511/512 and maintained correspondence with Pope Hormisdas, the latter mainly concerning the Acacian schism.
Modern genealogical theories have suggested that the couple could be parents or ancestors to later Byzantine figures such as John Mystacon, Nicetas and Epiphania, the mother of Heraclius,[citation needed] but this remains unconfirmed.