Pompey was the Roman rival of Julius Caesar killed in Egypt shortly before Caesar met Cleopatra.
After losing to Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus in Greece in 48 BC, Pompey fled toward Egypt. He hoped the Ptolemaic court would support him because he had been connected with Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII Auletes. Instead, advisers to the young king Ptolemy XIII decided that killing Pompey might win Caesar’s favour.
Pompey landed near Pelusium on 28 September 48 BC. Egyptian agents, including the Roman officer Lucius Septimius, murdered him as he came ashore. His severed head was sent to Caesar, who arrived in Alexandria soon afterward and reportedly reacted with grief and outrage rather than approval.
The death dramatically shaped Cleopatra’s fortunes. Caesar’s intervention led him to support Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII as joint rulers, while the resulting Alexandrian conflict eventually made Cleopatra Caesar’s ally and lover. The main mix-up is chronology: Pompey was killed before Caesar’s first meeting with Cleopatra, not during the later struggle between Caesar and Ptolemy XIII.