Of Pompey I must acknowledge for myself that I have but a vague conception.
His wonderful successes seem to have been produced by so very little power of his own! He was not determined and venomous as was Marius; not cold-blooded and ruthless as was Sulla; certainly not confident as was Caesar; not humane as was Cicero; not passionate as Catiline; not stoic as was Cato; not reckless as was Antony, nor wedded to the idea of an oligarchy as was Brutus.

Success came in his way, and he found it--found it again and again, till fortune seemed to have adopted him.

Success lifted him higher and higher, till at last it seemed to him that he must be a Sulla whether he would or no.[143] But he could not endure the idea of a rival Sulla.

I doubt whether ambition would have prompted him to fight for the empire of the Republic, had he not perceived that that empire would fall into Caesar's hands did he not grasp it himself.

It would have satisfied him to let things go, while the citizens called him "Magnus," and regarded him as the man who could do a great thing if he would, if only no rivalship had been forced upon him.