Although the dominant family in Picenum, Strabo was the first of his branch to achieve senatorial status in Rome; he completed the traditional cursus honorum, becoming consul in 89 BC, and acquired a reputation for greed, political duplicity, and military ruthlessness.

[5] One of the main issues at stake in 87 BC was the appointment of the consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla as commander of the Roman army in the ongoing First Mithridatic War, an opportunity to amass enormous wealth.

[6] During his absence in the East, his political rivals led by Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Gaius Marius the Younger regained control of the Roman Senate.

Not long afterwards Pompey successfully ambushed another large force under Censorinus, which was trying to get through to Praeneste where Carbo's consular colleague, Marius the Younger (who was the figurehead of the struggle against Sulla), was blockaded.

It was the failure of these attempts to get through the Sullan blockade in Umbria and Etruria, added to Metellus's success in winning control of the north, which broke the back of the government's resistance.

[22] Pompey refused to disband his army until Sulla agreed, although the latter tried to offset the impact by awarding simultaneous triumphs to Lucius Licinius Murena and Gaius Valerius Flaccus.

[29] The Sertorian War began in 80 BC when Quintus Sertorius, a prominent proscribed Marian general, initiated a rebellion in Hispania, where he was joined by other Roman exiles like Perperna.

[44] Although Metellus defeated Perperna in a separate battle, Sertorius was able to withdraw to Clunia late in the year, where he repaired the walls to lure his opponents into a siege, while forming garrisons from other towns into a new field army.

[45][46] Dire straits caused by this stretch of the campaign and Sertorius' guerrilla warfare led Pompey to write a letter to the Senate asking for funds and men, and scolding their lack of support for him and Metellus.

As his chief opponent had lost most of his Roman legionaries and could no longer match him in the field, Pompey, along with Metellus, gained the upper hand, conquering more and more Sertorian cities, slowly grinding down Sertorius' revolt.

Perperna was captured and attempted to persuade Pompey to spare him by giving over Sertorius' correspondence, allegedly containing proof of communications between the rebel leader and leading men in Rome.

Pompey burned the letters unread and executed Perperna, and then spent some time restructuring the local Roman administration, showing a lack of animosity towards his former opponents, which extended his patronage throughout Hispania and into southern Gaul.

The war began in 74 BC, when the last ruler of Bithynia died and left his kingdom to Rome, sparking an invasion by Mithridates VI of Pontus, and Tigranes the Great of Armenia.

Lucullus was a skilled general who won numerous victories, but claims he was protracting the war for "power and wealth" led to a Senate investigation, while by 69 BC his troops were weary and mutinous.

After winning a series of battles, he reached Phasis and linked up with Servilius, admiral of his Euxine fleet, before a fresh revolt in Caucasian Albania forced him to retrace his steps.

[78] Relying on his naval blockade to wear down Mithridates, Pompey spent 64 BC annexing the independent and wealthy cities of Syria, which were incorporated into a new Roman province.

[79] The final collapse of the Seleucid Empire allowed Pompey to annex Syria in 64 BC, but its dissolution destabilised the region, while many of its cities had used the power vacuum to achieve independence.

[80] In early 63 BC, Pompey left Antioch and marched south, occupying coastal cities like Apamea, before crossing the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and capturing Pella, Jordan and Damascus.

[84] Before his return to Italy in 62 BC, Pompey paid his troops bonuses totalling around 16,000 talents,[87][f] but despite fears he intended to follow Sulla's example, they were dismissed upon arrival at Brundisium.

[101] As a result, when shortages of grain caused popular unrest in 57 BC, a grateful Cicero backed Pompey's appointment as praefectus annonae, a temporary position set up for such occasions.

[103] Once in office, they ensured passage of a law giving Crassus the province of Syria and command of a punitive expedition against Parthia, providing him opportunities for both military glory and loot.

"[103] In 54 BC, Caesar continued his conquest of Gaul, Crassus opened his campaign against the Parthians, and Pompey remained in Rome, where his wife Julia died in child birth in September.

This gave Pompey time to build an army nearly twice the size of his opponents, while his navy destroyed two fleets being built for Caesar, ensuring the Pompeians retained control of the sea lanes.

[124] In late March the stalemate was broken when Mark Antony finally managed to cross the Adriatic with four more legions and land at Nymphaeum, some 57 kilometres north of Dyrrachium.

Cato announced his intention to continue the war from Africa, although most of his senatorial colleagues, including Cicero and Marcus Junius Brutus, made their peace with Caesar and returned to Rome.

[134] Pompey sailed from Cyprus with a small fleet, and on 28 September 48 BC arrived at Pelusium in Egypt, where Ptolemy was engaged in a bitter civil war with his co-ruler and elder sister, Cleopatra VII.

[135] One suggestion is that Ptolemy and his advisors feared Pompey planned to seize control of Egypt, especially since many Egyptian army officers were Roman mercenaries like Septimius who had previously served with him.

[136] Pompey's head was later returned to Cornelia for burial at his villa in the Alban Hills, while his ignominious death prompted Cicero to write "his life outlasted his power".

[141] On the other hand, Pompey is usually considered an outstanding strategist and organizer, who could win campaigns without displaying genius on the battlefield, but simply by constantly outmaneuvering his opponents and gradually pushing them into a desperate situation.

After Sertorius' army was greatly diminished, Pompey then decided to conduct a war of attrition, in which he would avoid open battles against his chief opponent but instead tried to gradually regain the strategic advantage by capturing his fortresses and cities and defeating his junior officers.