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| Lucius Septimius | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lucius Septimius |
| Birth date | Unknown |
| Death date | c. 48 BC |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Known for | Soldier involved in the assassination of Pompey the Great |
Lucius Septimius was a Roman soldier active in the late Roman Republic, primarily remembered for his participation in the murder of Pompey the Great in 48 BC. He appears in several ancient narratives and later historiography as one of the immediate agents whose actions intersected with the careers of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pompey, Lentulus Spinther, and Mark Antony. Septimius’s career is reconstructed from accounts by Suetonius, Caesar’s contemporaries, Plutarch, Appian, and later commentators such as Cassius Dio and Velleius Paterculus.
Little concrete evidence survives about Septimius’s origins, family, or early upbringing; classical sources do not provide a clear gens affiliation or birth locale. Ancient narratives situate him among soldiers and retainers often associated with Pompey’s circle, linking him by service ties rather than aristocratic pedigree to figures such as Scipio-era veterans and officers who had served in campaigns with Sulla, Pompey’s earlier allies. Later scholarship sometimes connects his name to other septimian individuals attested in inscriptions from Italy and Sicily, but no definitive epigraphic confirmation identifies his family or client relationships with prominent houses like the Licinii, Julians, or Aemilii.
Septimius is first reliably attested as a soldier and naval commander during the civil wars of the 40s and 30s BC, operating in the milieu of the Roman Republic’s final civil conflicts including the Caesar’s civil war, the aftermath of the Battle of Pharsalus, and the power struggles involving Pompey’s supporters. Sources portray him as a subordinate officer attached to vessels and shore parties, interacting with contemporaries such as Dio Chrysostom, Dolabella, and other seafaring commanders. In accounts of Mediterranean naval operations, Septimius appears among crew and marines whose loyalties shifted amid the fracturing of traditional aristocratic coalitions like the Optimates and the Populares; he is associated with detachments that frequented port cities including Alexandria, Syracuse, and Pelusium.
His operational role emphasizes boarding actions, guard duties, and enforcement of orders from patrons who sought to secure asylum, supplies, or safe passage for exiled leaders. Contemporary narratives emphasize his practical capability as an enforcer, rather than lofty command akin to Crassus or Caesar; he is presented as one of several mid-level actors whose local initiative influenced larger strategic events, working alongside figures such as Achillas and Ptolemy XIII’s court in Egypt.
Septimius’s most notorious action occurred in Egypt in 48 BC after the Battle of Pharsalus, when Pompey fled toward Alexandria seeking refuge with the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Ptolemy XIII’s regent court. Ancient narrators recount that Septimius, serving as part of the force that met Pompey at the shore or within an approaching boat, participated in the fatal stabbing or execution ordered by Egyptian authorities and influenced by advisers such as Pothinus and Theodotus. Accounts by Plutarch and Appian describe a sequence in which Septimius and fellow agents including Achillas’s men and other retainers boarded Pompey’s vessel under the pretense of offering safe harbor, then killed him on behalf of the Ptolemaic court seeking favor with Caesar.
The narratives emphasize the political calculus: Egyptian courtiers hoped to ingratiate themselves to Caesar by eliminating his rival, a plan at least tacitly sanctioned by Ptolemy XIII’s faction. Septimius’s act is variably presented as personal violence, execution under orders, or mercenary betrayal; subsequent retellings in the works of Suetonius and Cassius Dio amplify the moral judgment while tying the episode to wider diplomatic interactions between Rome and Alexandria.
Ancient traditions report that Septimius did not long survive the killing of Pompey. After the murder, accounts state that Caesar—shocked and displeased by the assassination—punished the perpetrators. Some sources indicate that Lentulus Spinther or allied Roman officers had Septimius executed or pursued, while others suggest that he was handed over to Pompey’s remaining supporters and killed in retribution. Variants in Cassius Dio, Plutarch, and Appian place his death shortly after the event, often depicted as summary execution on Caesar’s orders or by Egyptian agents anxious to dissociate from the deed. The precise circumstances, site, and date remain contested; most scholars accept a death around 48–47 BC.
Septimius’s legacy is bound to the contested memory of Pompey’s assassination and the politics of Caesar’s ascendancy. Ancient moralists used his figure to illustrate the dangers of opportunism and the ruthlessness of late-Republic factionalism, situating him alongside figures discussed in treatises on Roman ethical decline, such as Cicero’s correspondences and Seneca’s later moralizing. Modern historians reference Septimius when analyzing the interactions between Rome and Hellenistic monarchies, the role of intermediaries in diplomatic violence, and the narrative construction of culpability in sources like Plutarch and Appian.
As a named but peripheral actor, Septimius features in scholarly discussions of source bias, martyrdom narratives surrounding Pompey, and the mechanisms by which provincial and courtly actors influenced Roman political transitions examined by historians of the Late Roman Republic and the Hellenistic world. Category:1st-century BC Romans