Sextus Pompeius was born circa 75 BC. He was the youngest son of Pompey the Great (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) by his third wife, Mucia Tertia. His elder brother was Gnaeus Pompeius. Both boys grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome's best generals and an originally non-conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat.
He had been a firm opponent of Julius Caesar after his father's death in 48 b. c. , and for many years, with Spain as a base, he operated against the Caesarian party. In 40 b. c. Sextus captured Sardinia and Sicily, and threatened to cut off the grain supply of Rome. He was finally defeated in a naval battle off Sicily by Agrippa in 36 b. c. , after which he fled to Asia Minor. Deserted by his troops, he was captured by the troops of Mark Antony and soon afterward was put to death, probably at Antony's instigation.
Shakespeare had Sextus Pompey as a major character in his play Antony and Cleopatra (1606–07).
Sextus ("Sesto" in Italian) appears in George Frideric Handel's 1724 opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto ("Julius Caesar in Egypt"). The opera attributes to Sextus the killing of the Egyptian King Ptolemy XIII, who had killed his father Pompey. This is not historically attested.
British actor Donald Sumpter portrayed Sextus Pompey in the BBC Shakespeare television production of Antony and Cleopatra (1981).
American actor Walter Koenig portrayed Sextus Pompey in the Bard Productions television production of Antony and Cleopatra (1983).
Sextus had married Scribonia, a distant relative. She was the daughter of Lucius Scribonius Libo, consul of 34 BC and the niece of another Scribonia, the second wife of Octavian. Sextus and Scribonia had a daughter, their only child, called Pompeia Magna.
He was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic.
She was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, consul in 95 BC.
Scribonia is the nomen of the gens Scribonia of Ancient Roman, who lived during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.
Pompeia was the only child born to the sons of triumvir Pompey.
He was a Roman politician and general from the late Republic (1st century BC).
