Pompey the Great & Marcus Crassus

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (29 September 106BCE – 29 September 48BCE) - from rich Italian stock and the old families of Rome, he was a controversial figure prone to bouts of military genius then towering moods of petulance and paranoia. Pompey earned his spurs under Sulla and his civil war against Marius where he was granted the title “magnus”, “the great”. He was also instrumental in the crushing defeat of the Sicilian pirates and the forces of Mithridates VI. He took the plaudits for defeating the renegade slave Spartacus causing a rift that was never to heal with Marcus Crassus. As Caesar led his forces against the senate, Pompey stood against his former friend. At several points Pompey could have turned the war but for the dithering and interference of the bickering senate. His life ended in ignominy at the hand of an assassins blade in Pelusium after his final defeat against Caesar at Pharsalus.

Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus (115BCE – 53BCE) - the third spoke in the triumvirate alongside Caesar and Pompey, he was considered one of the wealthiest Romans of his time, another veteran of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, he gained his fortune buying and selling real estate. His first real break as a field commander coming in the defeat of the renegade slave Spartacus, though he would be robbed of the coup de grâce by Pompey and his legions. As with all great egos, pettiness and mistrust tore at the fringes of their relationship. Caesar at the Lucca Conference restored order to the trio, but it was upon his Governorship of Syria that the seeds of Crassus’ downfall were planted. Crassus led an ill-fated campaign against Rome’s bitter Eastern enemy the Parthians, and fell at Carrhae. Within a handful of years Caesar would light the touch paper that would ignite another bout of bitter civil war in Rome.

Models supplied unassembled and unpainted.