The Italian peninsula and the island of Sicily, which are, in fact, a projection from the northern shores of the Mediterranean, with a salient angle of the coast nearly opposite to them on the African side, form a sort of strait which divides this great sea into two separate bodies of water, and the pirates were now driven entirely out of the western division.  Pompey sent his principal fleet after them, with orders to pass around the island of Sicily and the south era part of Italy to Brundusium, which was the great port on the western side of Italy.  He himself was to cross the peninsula by land, taking Rome in his way, and afterward to join the fleet at Brundusium.  The pirates, in the mean time, so far as they had escaped Pompey’s cruisers, had retreated to the seas in the neighborhood of Cilicia, and were concentrating their forces there in preparation for the final struggle.

Pompey was received at Rome with the utmost enthusiasm.  The people came out in throngs to meet him as he approached the city, and welcomed him with loud acclamations.  He did not, however, remain in the city to enjoy these honors.  He procured, as soon as possible, what was necessary for the further prosecution of his work, and went on.  He found his fleet at Brundusium, and, immediately embarking, he put to sea.

[Sidenote:  Some of them surrender.]

Pompey went on to the completion of his work with the same vigor and decision which he had displayed in the commencement of it.  Some of the pirates, finding themselves hemmed in within narrower and narrower limits, gave up the contest, and came and surrendered.  Pompey, instead of punishing them severely for their crimes, treated them, and their wives and children, who fell likewise into his power, with great humanity.  This induced many others to follow their example, so that the number that remained resisting to the end was greatly reduced.  There were, however, after all these submissions, a body of stern and indomitable desperadoes left, who were incapable of yielding.  These retreated, with all the forces which they could retain, to their strong-holds on the Silician shores, sending their wives and children back to still securer retreats among the fastnesses of the mountains.

[Sidenote:  A great battle.] [Sidenote:  Disposal of the pirates.]

Pompey followed them, hemming them in with the squadrons of armed galleys which he brought up around them, thus cutting off from them all possibility of escape.  Here, at length, a great final battle was fought, and the dominion of the pirates was ended forever.  Pompey destroyed their ships, dismantled their fortifications, restored the harbors and towns which they had seized to their rightful owners, and sent the pirates themselves, with their wives and children, far into the interior of the country, and established them as agriculturists and herdsmen there, in a territory which he set apart for the purpose, where they might live in peace on the fruits of their own industry, without the possibility of again disturbing the commerce of the seas.