Chapter 181: Pompey Magnus 2
< 181. Pompey Magnus 2 >
“Do you remember… when we first met?”
Pompey looked beyond critical.
He was literally on the verge of death.
Fortunately, Marcus arrived just in time.
When he rushed over as soon as he heard the news, Crassus and Sextus had already said their last farewell to Pompey.
But Pompey somehow gathered his strength and lifted his body halfway when he saw Marcus’s face.
He said he wanted to go outside for the last time.
Marcus ordered his men to move Pompey’s bed to the courtyard of the mansion.
“Back then… I had a conversation with you in this mansion when you were young. I was amazed by your intelligence from then on.”
“That was twenty years ago.”
“It was a long or short time, depending on how you look at it. Come closer. My eyes are getting dim and I can’t see your face clearly.”
Pompey reached out his hand.
Marcus could see that even raising his hand was slightly difficult for him.
According to Crassus, Pompey was gasping for breath as if he would die any moment before Marcus came.
But now he showed no sign of that.
It meant that his body had already accepted death as imminent.
Marcus’s steps became heavier as he approached Pompey.
Marcus looked down at Pompey’s hand that was stretched out to him.
Come to think of it, he had never seen a close person’s deathbed before.
He had seen so many deaths on the battlefield, but he had never sent off someone who was dying peacefully after living their life.
Marcus hesitantly reached out his hand and held Pompey’s hand.
It felt hard and cold, as if the warmth was fading away.
It was unbearably sad.
“…I’ve always thought this. The best encounter in my life was meeting you.”
“It was thanks to you that I could rise to this position.”
“…You would have found a way even without me. But if I hadn’t met you, I don’t know… maybe I would have gone downhill after the Eastern expedition.”
Pompey’s voice was barely audible, but his pronunciation was clear.
His eyes were cloudy, but he could see some things better because of that.
Pompey smiled faintly and continued.
“I’m really grateful for the event you opened last time. There weren’t many moments in my life that made me so happy. Thanks to that, I realized how blessed my life was.”
“…”
“The only thing that worried me was that son of mine. But now I’ve decided to let go of that worry too.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help him stand on his own feet. You know I always keep my promises.”
“…That’s right. You never broke a promise with me.”
Pompey’s voice became thinner than before.
“Actually, I’ve thought about this before… but I never said it out loud because I felt sorry for Gnaeus and Sextus. If you were my son… I would have given you everything I had. Crassus would have snorted that he couldn’t beat him anyway. But still… even though we weren’t father and son, we had a pretty good relationship. Didn’t we?”
“Of course. All of Rome knows about our relationship.”
“You’re still young. Rome will be led by you and Caesar now that I’m gone… but someday Caesar will also step down. When that time comes, you can do whatever you want. Unlike me, you have the capacity to do so… It wouldn’t be bad to become the king of Rome.”
Pompey joked or not and laughed.
“Magnus, I…”
“Anyway, I’m going to cross over there on Charon’s boat soon, so there’s no need to ride a boat here. I hope the weather is nice there too. I hate cloudy days.”
Finally, a tear rolled down Marcus’s eye.
He nodded his head calmly, trying to keep his voice steady.
“You will rest in peace in a better place.”
“Yes, it was a good life. If you don’t mind, stand up and straighten your posture. I want to see your handsome face one more time.”
Marcus quickly let go of Pompey’s hand and got up from his seat.
He adjusted his clothes and stood upright in front of Pompey.
Pompey looked at Marcus with his blurred eyes and smiled contentedly.
“You always look reliable and trustworthy. I can leave everything to you without any worries.”
In fact, Pompey’s eyes could not see anything anymore.
But he could see him.
“I wish I could see that moment with my own eyes.”
Pompey’s breath stopped for a moment. The life force that he had been holding on to was leaving his body.
“But I have no regrets in my life… Marcus, you have to live your life doing what you want. But don’t get bored like me and always look for new goals. I’ll be waiting for you there leisurely, so take your time and enjoy yourself. After all, this world is full of fun things if you just look around…”
Pompey overlapped his past with the young Marcus.
Soon, he saw the scenery of the distant India that he had never seen before in his eyes.
“I have no regrets, but the last thing that comes to my mind is the longing for the land that I haven’t conquered yet… That’s also me, so it’s not bad.”
He muttered to himself like a whisper, and his lips twitched slightly.
“But… it was not a bad life.”
The great hero’s breath stopped.
It was a peaceful and happy face.
※※※
Pompey’s funeral was held as a state funeral, of course.
As soon as the news of his death spread, people from all over Italy flocked to Rome to attend the funeral.
Pompey’s veterans even gathered in legion units with their old weapons.
There was a suggestion in the Senate that this should be sanctioned, but Marcus decided not to interfere as long as they did not cause any trouble.
People from Greece, North Africa, and Hispania also came by boat to attend the funeral, so the funeral was not held right away.
The Senate set the date with enough time for everyone to participate.
“Then I will announce Pompey Magnus’s will publicly. Is it okay if I do it, Marcus?”
Piso, Caesar’s father-in-law, asked politely.
“Please do. I’ll call the citizens to the Rostra platform. You can announce it there. There are quite a lot of contents that the citizens will like.”
The senators led by Marcus got up from their seats and headed to the Rostra platform with the crowd of people.
The citizens gathered at the Forum Romanum were still immersed in a gloomy atmosphere as if they had not recovered from their grief.
Some veterans even showed tears as if they could not believe Pompey’s death.
Piso cleared his throat and climbed onto the platform.
The Vestal Virgins who kept the wills of the Roman elite stood beside him to confirm that the contents of the will were correct.
Under the gaze of countless citizens and veterans, Piso began to read the will.
First, Sextus was appointed as the head of the Pompey family instead of his eldest son Gnaeus.
Then there was a will to expand the size of the theater that Pompey built by almost five times so that the citizens could enjoy a quality cultural life.
Pompey also donated several gardens he had near Rome to the public for the sake of the citizens.
Pompey surprisingly returned most of what he enjoyed to the Romans and left.
When all his wills were revealed, the citizens answered with tears instead of cheers.
And finally, Pompey’s funeral day dawned.
It seemed like the whole world was waiting for this day.
The crowd grew denser as the day went by, and there was not a single place in Rome where outsiders could sleep.
Marcus built temporary shelters on the Campus Martius so that they would not sleep on the street.
The aristocrats and populists did not distinguish their factions and mourned for the great hero who made history in Rome.
Cicero gave a eulogy for Pompey on behalf of the Senate, and even Cato, who had many conflicts with Pompey, bowed respectfully to Pompey’s corpse.
When the eulogy was over, Pompey’s coffin slowly moved toward the temple.
Musicians dressed in black sang funeral songs behind the coffin.
The crowd followed them as they walked.
It was an enormous scale that made one wonder if there had ever been so many people at one person’s funeral in history.
The line of visitors did not stop until the next day dawned.
The place where Pompey’s altar was located was piled up with bouquets, various accessories, dolls, and so on.
It was a scene that showed how much the Romans respected and loved Pompey.
Caesar also sent a letter of condolence to Rome, writing a eulogy for Pompey, despite being busy with his expedition.
Marcus read this letter as the last step of the funeral.
Four days after the funeral, the gifts offered on the altar stretched all the way to the Forum Romanum.
Marcus erected a large marble statue in honor of Pompey next to the temple.
Pompey had left, but his traces remained deeply in the hearts of all Romans.
And after about a week, Rome returned to its original state.
The departed person could never be seen again.
The ones who remained had to accept his absence and move on.
The Senate chamber, which had agreed to suspend all political disputes until the funeral was over, was filled with noise again.
Marcus had prevented any trouble from arising in the name of Pompey’s death, but even without that purpose, some commotion was inevitable.
It was not yet clear how to deal with the enormous privileges and positions that Pompey had held.
Normally, all offices in Rome had a fixed term and were not inherited by sons.
This was common sense, but the problem was that the rights given to Pompey were a bit special.
First of all, the regions where Pompey was nominally governor were only Hispania, Achaia, and Cusia.
Greece and North Africa were officially ruled by other governors sent from Rome.
But they were only governors in name, and in reality, the rulers of these regions were loyal to Pompey.
The legions led by Pompey were the same.
The imperium to command the ten legions that were granted to him should have been returned after Pompey’s death.
But at this time, Rome’s legions were already virtually professional soldiers.
It was not only Pompey’s problem.
The legions led by Caesar were loyal to Caesar, not Rome, and Marcus’s legions also followed Marcus’s orders, not Rome’s.
It was obvious that Sextus would not listen to a word if he was told to disband the legions.
Moreover, there was also a difficulty in how to handle the title of naval commander-in-chief that Pompey had.
This was not an original office, but a special one created only for Pompey.
That made it more difficult to reach a consensus in the Senate.
In the end, as always, Marcus passed a compromise proposal without a proper agreement.
“Sextus will inherit Pompey Magnus’s governorship and imperium, which had not expired yet. This imperium also includes the command of the navy, so he will naturally keep the title of naval commander-in-chief. However, the right of triumvirate that Pompey had will be temporarily suspended.”
The reason was that Sextus, who was still young, did not have the same insight as Pompey.
When he expressed his opinion at the triumvirate meeting, Sextus had to consult with the opinions of the aristocratic and popular senators and listen to their advice.
The Senate agreed that this was acceptable.
With this, Rome seemed to have completely regained its stability on the surface.
But there was still an element of unrest left.
A report came through relay stations that Caesar had annihilated the last Germanic tribe that did not stop resisting.
The aristocrats who did not welcome Caesar’s return were on alert and watched the situation closely.
Even the populists who would have cheered for him expected some trouble and looked tense.
Cicero sensed the future that would unfold and left this record in his book.
‘With Pompey’s death as a turning point, the era of checks and balances and cooperation will end and the era of confrontation will begin. I can only hope that the future of the republic will not go dark.’
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