Cornelia (c. 75–after 48 bce)

Roman noblewoman and wife of Pompey the Great. Born around 75 bce; died after 48 bce; daughter of Metellus Scipio; married Publius Licinius Crassus, in 55 (died 53 bce); married Pompey the Great (106–48 bce), Roman consul, in 52 bce.

The daughter of Metellus Scipio, a partisan of the First Triumvirate (the political alliance consisting of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Crassus), Cornelia was famous for her lineage, education, character, beauty and charm. She was first married in 55 to Publius Licinius Crassus, the son of Caesar's political ally; this union ended when her husband was killed in 53 (in modern Syria) along with his father, during their abortive campaign against the Parthian Empire. In a second political marriage (52), Cornelia wed Pompey the Great, although many in Rome thought her better suited by age to be the bride of one of Pompey's sons. When the political friendship of Caesar and Pompey the Great deteriorated into civil war, Cornelia strongly supported Pompey, who doted upon his young spouse. After Pompey lost the battle of Pharsalus to Caesar in 48, Pompey fled the battlefield and mainland Greece to join his wife at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Cornelia blamed his misfortune on herself, claiming to be the jinx that had ruined both Pompey and her first husband, the younger Crassus. When, in an effort to resuscitate his rivalry with Caesar, Pompey made his way to Egypt, Cornelia witnessed Pompey's murder from the deck of the ship that had carried them to Alexandria. The assassination of Pompey had been orchestrated by the Egyptian pretender, Ptolemy XIII, in his effort to win over Caesar's gratitude, with hopes that Caesar would intervene on his behalf in Ptolemy's civil war against his famous sister Cleopatra VII .

William S. Greenwalt , Associate Professor of Classical History, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California