Pompeia (gens)

The gens Pompeia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, first appearing in history during the second century BC, and frequently occupying the highest offices of the Roman state from then until imperial times. The first of the Pompeii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pompeius in 141 BC, but by far the most illustrious of the gens was Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Magnus, a distinguished general under the dictator Sulla, who became a member of the First Triumvirate, together with Caesar and Crassus. After the death of Crassus, the rivalry between Caesar and Pompeius led to the Civil War, one of the defining events of the final years of the Roman Republic.

The nomen Pompeius (frequently anglicized as Pompey) is generally believed to be derived from the Oscan praenomen Pompo, equivalent to the Latin Quintus, and thus a patronymic surname. The gentilicia Pompilius and Pomponius, with which Pompeius is frequently confounded, were also derived from Pompo. The gentile-forming suffix -eius was typical of Sabine families, suggesting that the Pompeii were of Sabine or Oscan extraction. Cicero describes Quintus Pompeius, the consul of 141 BC, as a man of "humble and obscure origin".

Chase posits an alternative etymology: that Pompeius and similar names were instead derived from pompa, a procession, or a derived cognomen Pompo, meaning not "fifth", but a participant in a procession; but he concludes that all of these hypotheses are uncertain.

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