Sextus Pompeius was a Roman senator who lived during the 1st century BC and into the 1st century AD. He appeared to have a witty character and to be very intelligent. Sextus was a patron of literature and the Roman poet

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

addressed to him four poems when he was living in exile. These poems were collected in the fourth book of ''

Epistulae ex Ponto ''Epistulae ex Ponto'' (''Letters from the Black Sea'') is a work of Ovid, in four books. It is a collection of letters describing Ovid's exile in Tomis (modern-day Constanța) written in elegiac couplets and addressed to his wife and friends. T ...

''. His relationship to the homonymous consul of 35 BC is problematic. Some authors infer he was his son. However,

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

notes "an intermediate generation should be allowed for, as happens in the stemmata of other noble families." Based on

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

's assertion that this Sextus Pompeius had a connection to the imperial family, Syme catalogues some possible individuals who could have been his mother. Some authorities follow

Bartolomeo Borghesi Bartolomeo (also Bartolommeo) Borghesi (11 July 178116 April 1860) was an Italian antiquarian who was a key figure in establishing the science of numismatics. He was born at Savignano, near Rimini, and studied at Bologna and Rome. Having weaken ...

and assert she was the daughter of Lucius Marcius Philippus suffect consul in 38 BC. Syme suggests she might be the daughter of Sextus Appuleius, consul in 29 BC or the daughter of that consul's brother,

Marcus Appuleius Marcus Appuleius (c. 55 BC – c. 15 BC) was a nephew of the Roman emperor Augustus and Roman consul in 20 BC with Publius Silius Nerva as his colleague. Biography Marcus Appuleius is postulated to have been the son of Sextus Appuleius and Octavia ...

consul in 20 BC. Sextus served as consul in AD 14 with Sextus Appuleius. The two men held office when the first Roman emperor,

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, died, and they were the first to swear allegiance to the new Emperor,

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

, Augustus’ adopted son and successor. At the funeral of Augustus, Sextus broke his leg. In Tiberius’ reign, he was one of seven witnesses of the ''Senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre'', the Roman Senate's official act concerning the trial and punishment of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso; the act was published on 10 December AD 20. Later, Sextus served as

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

from 24 to 26.

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

alludes to the wealth of a Pompeius, whose domains included the sources and mouths of rivers, then contrasts this with Caligula taking him into his palace and starving Pompeius to death, then arranging a public funeral for his victim. Although experts often identify Seneca's reference to a Pompeius with this Sextus Pompeius, Syme points out this would lead to "interesting (or rather intolerable) consequences for the chronology of

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

", and argues the Pompeius Caligula was so inhospitable to was an otherwise unattested son.Syme, ''History in Ovid'', pp. 162

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pompeius, Sextus 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century Romans Imperial Roman consuls Sextus Roman governors of Asia