Rome Season 1 Episode 3

In discussing Caesar's march on Rome, Pompey starts tell an anecdote about when he destroyed pirates, but is cut off by Cato

This is an allusion to Third Mithridatic War, where Mithridates VI of Pontus allied himself with bands of pirates in the eastern Mediterranean against Rome. The pirates were immensely successful: attacking Roman shipping, threatening the supply of grain to Rome; conducting inland raids to capture and ransom prominent Roman citizens - including an ex-Consul's daughter, and two Praetors; and even attacking the Roman fleet while it was in harbor!

Pompey was given a 3-year Imperium Infinitium over all the Mediterranean, all islands in the Mediterranean, and all land within 50 miles of the coast. This was unprecedented, controversial, and highly contested in the Senate - although this action was supported by a young Senator called Gaius Julius Caesar at the time.

In 3 months (67-66B.C.E.) Pompey had smashed the pirates (but resettled them as landholders in Roman controlled territory, gaining hundreds if not thousands of new cliens and supporters amongst the ex-pirates), but went on to "tour" the east for the next 6-years, acting like a king. He founded the Roman province of Syria, insulted and alienated the king of Parthia, and committed sacrilege in Jerusalem by barging into the "Holy of Holies" in the temple to see what all the fuss was about, before coming home.

Pompey was so successful that he alarmed his fellow Consul, Marcus Licinius Crassus, who scrambled to find ways to counteract Pompey's "run away power" - most of which failed. Finally, Crassus decided to counter-balance Pompey by creating an 'anti-Pompey', and threw his support behind the career of an up-and-coming Patrician, Gaius Julius Caesar.