In just six years (67-62 BC), Pompey the Great brought large parts of the eastern Mediterranean and southern Black Sea region under Roman control. He eliminated the threat of piracy throughout the Mediterranean, especially on the coasts of Cilicia, and defeated Rome's archenemy Mithridates VI in Asia Minor. Additionally, he subdued the Armenian king Tigranes II, conducted military campaigns against various tribes in the Caucasus, and dismantled existing political structures by ending both Seleucid rule in Syria and Hasmonean autonomy in Judaea. The military victories were followed by far-reaching political and administrative measures: some of the subjugated territories were entrusted to client rulers, including Cappadocia, Armenia, and Judaea, while other regions such as Paphlagonia, Pontus, Cilicia, and Syria were transformed into Roman provinces. Pompey also took precautions for the further development of the East at a local level, in particular by consistently promoting urbanisation. This involved not only the reorganisation of existing settlements but also the foundation of new cities in previously less urbanised areas. Part of these interventions were large-scale resettlements, redistributions of land, and reforms of communal administrative structures, which fundamentally changed the local economic, social, and political conditions in the long term. With regard to the enormous dimensions of these events, the literature usually emphasises the out-standing historical significance of his personal achievement, referring to it as 'Pompey's Eastern Settlement', or 'Pompey's New Order'. However, despite the continuous attention given to this topic, there is no comprehensive analysis that specifically deals with the phenomenon as a subject in its own right. [1]

Against this backdrop, the volume edited by Margherita Facella, Federico Santangelo, and Giusto Traina is most welcome, as it attempts to fill this significant research gap. The volume, which emerged from a series of workshops and a conference held at Pisa in 2022, contains 16 substantial contributions by different authors aiming to systematically explore Pompey's activities in the East. In doing so, the authors seek to investigate how both the "Roman imperial project" and the "Roman political body" were transformed by Pompey's campaigns and administrative measures (1). Although the book does not follow an explicit structure, it can broadly be divided into three parts: first, a discussion of the political fallout of Pompey's activities with a decidedly urban Roman perspective; second, a view on Pompey and his achievement in the East through a strict Ciceronian lens; third, an extensive and systematic presentation of further sources from different genres that allow insights into both Pompey's New Order and its reception.

Federico Santangelo provides an introduction to the volume, offering a useful overview of how Pompey's achievements in the East have been received in scholarship (1-11). Salvatore Marino examines the political and legal background to Pompey's extraordinary commands, a much-discussed topic which Marino re-evaluates in the light of recent research on the concepts of imperium and provincia (13-36). Luca Fezzi, who authored a recent biography of Pompey, investigates the political reactions in Rome to the general's measures in the East - not only after his return, but already during his command (37-55). [2] Fezzi concludes that Rome's attention was drawn away from Pompey's eastern work by "other more pressing problems, chiefly Catiline's conspiracy" (52f.). Eleonora Zampieri draws on the expertise she has already demonstrated in earlier publications on the subject to discuss in detail the archaeology and political significance of the theatre complex that Pompey commissioned in Rome after his return from the East (57-76). [3] The author convincingly argues that the multifunctional building, with its statuary decoration, mirrored a new vision of Roman rule over the οἰκουμένη / orbis terrarum.

The following three contributions deal in detail with the relationship between Cicero and Pompey. Tommaso Ricchieri comments on the account of the 'Pirate War' of 67 BC in Cicero's De imperio Cn. Pompei / De lege Manilia from 66 BC (77-101). Alice Borgna demonstrates, drawing on both Cicero's correspondence and his orations, that the relationship between Pompey and Cicero cooled progressively between 67 and 59 BC following an initial period of closeness and cooperation (125-156). Another result is that Cicero's writings consistently reveal a Rome-centred perspective and, apart from the De lege Manilia, he wrote relatively little about the operations in the East. Lucia Gallia continues this investigation by analysing Cicero's portrayal of Pompey up to the orator's death in 43 BC (125-156). The findings are complex and do not allow for generalisations about a clearly positive or negative depiction.

The next eight chapters provide a thorough presentation of the sources that give information about Pompey's activities in the East, categorised by genre. They discuss Latin literary sources (Francesco Ginelli, 157-180), Greek literary sources (Lucia Visonà, 181-197), military writers as a special subcategory (Immacolata Eramo, 199-212), epigraphic evidence, primarily honorific inscriptions and dedications arranged by location (Margherita Facella and Andrea Raggi, 213-285), urban and provincial coinage in the East (Dario Calomino, 287-312), ancient Jewish sources, i.e. Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Psalms of Solomon (Meron M. Piotrkowski, 313-348), and finally the later reception in Byzantine historiography (Pia Carolla, 349-359) and Syriac Christian texts (Andy Hilkens, 361-396). Brief concluding remarks by Giusto Traina (397-405) and a general index listing names, subjects, and places (407-418) bring the volume to a close.

Given the scope of the book, it is not possible to provide a detailed critical assessment of each individual contribution. Instead, a few general remarks shall be made. The volume has been compiled with great care, and the contributions offer their readers many detailed observations. In my view, the volume's greatest strength lies above all in the meticulous and systematic collection and presentation of the topic's relevant literary, epigraphic, numismatic, archaeological and papyrological sources (not only in Latin and Greek, but also in Hebrew and Syriac). This unique compilation is further enhanced by tables, maps, and illustrations. Undoubtedly, the authors of this volume have created a useful tool for future research into Pompey's activities in the East during the 60s BC.

Alongside these strengths of the volume, two shortcomings must be noted, though these are only problematic when judging the book by its stated high ambitions. First, the volume ultimately lacks a genuine synthesis that brings together the findings of the individual contributions in light of the objective formulated by Federico Santangelo at the outset, namely to understand the impact of the Eastern Settlement on Rome's political system and its governance in the East. Giusto Traina's final conclusions are more of a brief commentary on selected scholarly views on Pompey, ranging from Mommsen to the present day, than an attempt to point out the implications of the Roman engagement in the East during the 60s BC. Second, and this is perhaps also the reason why Traina does not delve deeper into this in the conclusions, the volume only partially fulfils its stated aim of exploring the nature and the historical significance of the New Order. Most of the contributions clearly focus on the compilation and characterisation of the source material rather than on analysing the political transformations that led from the aristocratic, city-state-centred Late Republic to the imperial Principate (not to mention the long-term effects of Pompey's measures on the political, economic, and cultural development of the impacted territories). It is also striking that the contributions focus overwhelmingly on the figure of Pompey. This is unquestionably due to the protagonist's prominence in the sources, yet it results in neglecting other relevant actors and their interests who played a significant part in 'Pompey's' reorganisation. This applies not only to figures from the general's staff, such as his Greek advisers and his legates, whose activities are well attested in literary sources as well as in the epigraphic record, but also to urban elites and dynasts from the reorganised territories themselves. One notable exception to this assessment is Dario Calomino's contribution on local and provincial coinage, which breaks away from this common fixation on Pompey and focuses, instead, more closely on the cities as key players.

Nevertheless, these critical remarks should not obscure the fact that the book represents the first extensive and systematic approach to the 'Eastern Settlement' and a valuable resource for anyone engaged with Pompey and the Roman expansion in the eastern Mediterranean during the first century BC.

Notes:

[1] Apart from the many biographies on Pompey, there are only articles or book chapters, e.g. T. Esch: Zur kommunalen Neuordnung durch Pompeius. Kilikia Pedias und Pontos. Ein Vergleich, in: E. Schwertheim (Hg.): Studien zum antiken Kleinasien VII (Asia Minor Studien; 66), Bonn 2011, 35-95. - K. Trampedach: Zwischen Alexander und Augustus. Pompeius' Neuordnung des Ostens, in: H.-J. Gehrke / A. Mastrocinque (eds.): Roma e l'Oriente nel I secolo a.C., Cosenza 2009, 393-416. - W. M. Freeman: Pompey's Eastern Settlement. A Matter of Presentation?, (Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History; 7 / Collection Latomus; 227), 1994, 143-179. - J. Murphy: Pompey's Eastern Acta, AHB 7, 1993, 136-142.

[2] L. Fezzi: Pompeo. Conquistadore del mondo, difensore della res publica, eroe tragico, Roma 2019.

[3] E. Zampieri: Politics in the Monuments of Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar, London / New York 2023. - E. Zampieri: Pompey, Minerva and Rome's Presence in the Near East, Hermes, 148/3, 2020, 324-344.

Nicolai Futás