fellow-creatures, merely to gratify his insane love of dominion.



CHAPTER V.

POMPEY.

[Sidenote: Pompey.]

While Caesar had thus been rising to so high an elevation, there was
another Roman general who had been, for nearly the same period, engaged,
in various other quarters of the world, in acquiring, by very similar
means, an almost equal renown. This general was Pompey. He became, in
the end, Caesar's great and formidable rival. In order that the reader
may understand clearly the nature of the great contest which sprung up
at last between these heroes, we must now go back and relate some of the
particulars of Pompey's individual history down to the time of the
completion of Caesar's conquests in Gaul.

[Sidenote: His birth.]
[Sidenote: Pompey's personal appearance.]

Pompey was a few years older than Caesar, having been born in 106 B.C.
His father was a Roman general, and the young Pompey was brought up in
camp. He was a young man of very handsome figure and countenance, and of
very agreeable manners. His hair curled slightly over his forehead, and
he had a dark and intelligent eye, full of vivacity and meaning. There
was, besides, in the expression of his face, and in his air and address,
a certain indescribable charm, which prepossessed every one strongly in