With the exception of the civil war in 48BC, in which Caesar defeats Pompey in their only head-to-head bettle, this is the last of Pompey's great military commands, namely his appointment to sole consulship in 52BC and his appointment to command against Caesar in 51BC, in which he is greanted pro-consular imperium with control over all military forces in Italy, Pompey's interests are predominantly political from this time onwards. However, it was a series of significant military commands and triumphs from his raising of a private army to aid Sulla in 87BC to his final defeat of Mithridates in 63BC that steadily increased Pompey's power and prestige in Rome. Furthermore, his need for the ratification of his Eastern Settlement, in which he reorganises the Asian provincial system, after the Mithridatic war drives Pompey into the arms of Julius Caesar, who together with Crassus, formed the first Triumvirate, thrusting Pompey into the field of politics and ultimately resulting in the outbreak of civil war.…
