Background
Pollio was born in Caserta, son of Michele and Maria Oberty. At a young age he enrolled into the Nunziatella military school, then he attended the Military Academy of Modena, becoming in 1870 an artillery officer.In 1887 he was named aide de camp of King Umberto I, then from 1893 to 1897 military attache to the Italian embassy in Wien, then he was appointed commander of the Siena brigade and then of two different divisions of the Italian army.