Pompey

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Within the framework of Justinian's speech in the Heaven of Mars, Pompey is mentioned alongside Scipio as one of the protagonists of the sequence of Roman triumphs which, according to Dante's narrative, concludes the Republican phase of Roman history. The commentary on the passage specifies that the Republican history closes precisely with the triumphs of Pompey, before the account rises toward the «pax augusta» willed by God for the birth of Christ, of which Caesar was the predestined preparer. Caesar's subsequent campaigns against Pompey are then recalled as a lightning war in Spain, a clash at Dyrrhachium on the coasts of Epirus, and a crushing victory at Pharsalus, after which Pompey withdrew to Egypt to the ally Ptolemy, who had him killed. The figure of Pompey thus takes his place in the historiographical survey inserted in the Heaven of Mars, as the terminus of the Republican season and as the adversary defeated by Caesar.