Sextus Pompey

Sextus Pompeius held Sicily and starved Rome for years, and was the last of the republican opposition to be beaten. Born around 67 BC, he was the younger son of Pompey the Great, and was in Egypt as a teenager when his father was murdered stepping ashore in 48 BC. He fought on in Africa and then in Spain, and after Caesar destroyed the last senatorial army at Munda in 45 BC he took to the mountains with the survivors and conducted a guerrilla war that recovered much of the province. Caesar's assassination in 44 BC transformed him from a fugitive into an asset. The senate voted him command of the fleet and compensation for his father's confiscated property, and then the Second Triumvirate proscribed him. He went to Sicily and made himself master of the western Mediterranean. Proscribed men, escaped slaves and dispossessed Italian farmers came to him in large numbers, and his fleets cut the grain shipments from Africa and Egypt on which Rome depended. Bread riots in the city forced Octavian and Antony to negotiate at Misenum in 39 BC, recognising his hold on Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. The peace lasted about a year. Octavian's first attempts to invade were destroyed by storms and by better seamanship, and it took Agrippa — a new harbour built at Lake Avernus, a trained fleet, and a heavier grappling engine — to beat him at Naulochus in 36 BC. He fled east and was executed without trial in 35 BC. His defeat removed the last independent power in the west and left Octavian and Antony facing each other alone.

• Lived: 67 BCE – 35 BCE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: general, ruler