Pompey Mops Up Fugitives and Claims Credit

As Crassus wrapped up the war in Lucania and Bruttium, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus—Pompey—returned from Spain with veteran legions. In transit through northern and central Italy, his forces encountered and destroyed groups of fugitives attempting to slip away from the defeated main army [1][12]. Pompey wrote to the Senate claiming that while Crassus had beaten the main body, he had “plucked the war up by the roots,” or so later writers paraphrased the thrust. Plutarch preserves the rivalry’s flavor. The noise moved from battlefields to the Forum: applause, rumor, and the murmur of clients [1][12]. Geography placed Pompey’s mopping-up between Picenum and the approaches to Rome, along the Via Flaminia and other northern roads. Scarlet standards entering the city carried a different story than those planted in Bruttium’s mud: safety restored at Rome’s doorstep by Pompey’s hand. Crassus remained in the south, organizing executions along the Via Appia. Pompey’s presence in Latium and his stature from Spain made his claim plausible to many. Politics, like rivers near the Sele, finds the easiest channel. The contest over credit would shape honors, ovations, and future alliances. The crosses on the Appian Way stood silent while senators debated which general had saved them.