Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman, whose career was significant in Rome's transformation from a republic to empire. He was for a time a political ally and later enemy of Julius Caesar. A member of the senatorial nobility, Pompey entered a military career while still young and rose to prominence serving the later dictator Sulla as a commander in Sulla's civil war, his success at which earned him the cognomen Magnus – "the Great" – after Pompey's boyhood hero Alexander the Great. His adversaries also gave him the nickname adulescentulus carnifex for his ruthlessness. Pompey's success as a general while still young enabled him to advance directly to his first consulship without meeting the normal cursus honorum. He was consul three times and celebrated three Roman triumphs.