his favor, and gave him, from his earliest years, a great personal
ascendency over all who knew him.

[Sidenote: Plans to assassinate him.]

Notwithstanding this popularity, however, Pompey did not escape, even in
very early life, incurring his share of the dangers which seemed to
environ the path of every public man in those distracted times. It will
be recollected that, in the contests between Marius and Sylla, Caesar
had joined the Marian faction. Pompey's father, on the other hand, had
connected himself with that of Sylla. At one time, in the midst of these
wars, when Pompey was very young, a conspiracy was formed to assassinate
his father by burning him in his tent, and Pompey's comrade, named
Terentius, who slept in the same tent with him, had been bribed to kill
Pompey himself at the same time, by stabbing him in his bed. Pompey
contrived to discover this plan, but, instead of being at all
discomposed by it, he made arrangements for a guard about his father's
tent and then went to supper as usual with Terentius, conversing with
him all the time in even a more free and friendly manner than usual.
That night he arranged his bed so as to make it appear as if he was in
it, and then stole away. When the appointed hour arrived, Terentius came
into the tent, and, approaching the couch where he supposed Pompey was
lying asleep, stabbed it again and again, piercing the coverlets in many
places, but doing no harm, of course, to his intended victim.

[Sidenote: Pompey's adventures and escapes.]
[Sidenote: Death of his father.]
[Sidenote: Pompey appears in his father's defense.]

In the course of the wars between Marius and Sylla, Pompey passed