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Sextus Pompeius was the youngest son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). His elder brother was Gnaeus Pompeius. Both boys grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome's greatest generals and an originally non-conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat.
When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, thus starting a civil war, Sextus' older brother Gnaeus followed their father in his escape to the East, as did most of the conservative senators. Sextus stayed in Rome in the care of his stepmother, Cornelia Metella. Pompey's army lost the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC and Pompey himself had to run for his life. Cornelia and Sextus met him in the island of Lesbos and together they fled to Egypt. On the arrival, Sextus watched his father being killed by treachery on September 29 of the same year. After the murder, Cornelia returned to Rome; in the following years, Sextus joined the resistance against Caesar in the African provinces. Together with Metellus Scipio, Cato the Younger, his brother Gnaeus and other senators, they prepared to oppose Caesar and his army to the end.
Caesar won the first battle at Thapsus in 46 BC against Metellus Scipio and Cato, who committed suicide. In 45 BC, Caesar managed to defeat the Pompeius brothers in the Battle of Munda, in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal). Gnaeus Pompeius was executed, but young Sextus escaped once more, this time to Sicily.
Back in Rome, Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus. This incident did not lead to a return to normality, but provoked yet another civil war between Caesar's political heirs and his killers. The Second Triumvirate was formed by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemelius Lepidus, with the intention of avenging Caesar and subduing all opposition. Sextus Pompeius in Sicily was certainly a rebellious man, but the faction of Cassius and Brutus was the second triumvirate's first priority. Thus, with the whole island as his base, Sextus had the time and resources to develop an army and, even more importantly, a strong navy operated by Sicilian marines.
Brutus and Cassius lost the twin battles of Philippi and committed suicide in 42 BC. After this, the triumvirs turned their attentions to Sicily and Sextus.
However, by this time Sextus was prepared for strong resistance. In the following years, military confrontations failed to return a conclusive victory for either side, although in 40 BC Sextus' admiral, the freedman Menas, seized Sardinia from Octavian's governor Marcus Lurius. In 39 BC, Sextus and the triumvirs signed for peace in the Pact of Misenum. The reason for this peace treaty was to secure the West before the anticipated campaign against the Parthian Empire. Antony, the leader of Rome's eastern provinces, needed a large number of legions for the coming campaign, which would take his army (ostensibly) through Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Parthia. Thus, an armistice with Sextus' large forces on Sicily proved useful.
The peace did not last for long. In Antony's absence, Octavian renewed the conflict against Sextus. Sextus and Octavian accused one another of violating the terms of the Pact of Misenum, but the final straw was the betrayal of Sardinia to Octavian by Menas. Octavian was defeated in the naval battle of Messina (37 BC), so he now turned to his friends Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Titus Statilius Taurus, both very talented generals. In addition, the third triumvir, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, raised 14 legions in his African provinces to help defeat Pompey.
Agrippa spent the winter training a navy on land and building a fleet near Lake Avernus. Agrippa fought Sextus at Mylae in August 36 BC, and again a month later, while Lepidus and Statilius Taurus invaded Sicily. In the Battle of Naulochus, Agrippa destroyed the remainder of Sextus' fleet. Sextus escaped to Asia Minor and, by abandoning Sicily, lost his only base of support.
Sextus Pompeius was caught in Miletus in 35 BC, and executed without trial by order of Antony via Marcus Titius, whom Sextus had once spared. Although Octavian later pretended the execution without a trial of Sextus was illegal because Sextus was a Roman citizen, Octavian himself had declared Sextus an outlaw without citizen rights.