Ch. 13
CHAPTER XIII
New Dissensions in Rome--The War with Sertorius--Pompey sent against him--Sertorius defeats Pompey--Wars Elsewhere--Sertorius puts Pompey to flight at Pallantia--Sertorius assassinated by Perpenna--Perpenna takes the Command--Is defeated and slain by Pompey
[sect. 107] Directly after their return from the funeral the consuls fell into a wordy quarrel and the citizens began to take sides with them. Lepidus, in order to curry favor with the Italians, said that he would restore the land which Sulla had taken from them. The Senate was afraid of both factions and made them take an oath that they would not carry their differences to the point of war. To Lepidus the province of transalpine Gaul was assigned by lot and he did not come back to the comitia because he would be released in the following year from his oath about making war on the Sullans; for it was considered that the oath was binding only during the term of office. As his designs did not escape observation he was recalled by the Senate, and as he knew why he was recalled he came with his whole army, intending to bring them into the city with him. As he was prevented from doing this, he ordered his men under arms and Catulus did the same on the other side. A battle was fought not far from the Campus Martius. Lepidus was defeated and, soon giving up the struggle, sailed shortly afterward to Sardinia, where he died of a wasting disease. His army was frittered away little by little and dissolved, the greater part of it was conducted by Perpenna to Sertorius in Spain.
[sect. 108]
There remained of the Sullan troubles the war with Sertorius, which had been going on for eight years,
111 and was not an easy war to the Romans since it was waged not merely against Spaniards, but against other Romans and Sertorius. He had been chosen governor of Spain while he was coperating with Carbo against Sulla; and after taking the city of Suessa during the armistice he fled and assumed his prtorship. He had an army from Italy itself and he raised another from the Celtiberians, and drove out of Spain the former prtors, who, in order to favor Sulla, refused to surrender the government to him. He had also fought nobly against Metellus, who had been sent against him by Sulla. Having acquired a reputation for bravery he enrolled a council of 300 members from the friends who were with him, and called it the Roman Senate in derision 112 of the real one. After Sulla died, and Lepidus later, he 113 obtained another army of Italians which Perpenna, the lieutenant of Lepidus, brought to him and it was supposed that he intended to march against Italy itself, and would have done so had not the Senate become alarmed and sent another army and general into Spain in addition to the former ones. This general was Pompey, who was still a young man, but renowned for his exploits in the time of Sulla, in Africa and in Italy itself.
[sect. 109]
Pompey courageously crossed the Alps, not in the face of such difficulties as Hannibal experienced, but he opened another passage around the sources of the Rhone and the Eridanus. These issue from the Alpine mountains not far from each other. One of them runs through transalpine Gaul and empties into the Tyrrhenian sea; the other from the interior of the Alps to the Adriatic. The name of the latter has been changed from the Eridanus to the Po. 114 Directly Pompey arrived in Spain Sertorius cut in pieces 115 a whole legion of his army, that had been sent out foraging, with its animals and servants. He also plundered and destroyed the Roman town of Lauro before the very eyes of Pompey. In this siege a woman tore out with her fingers the eyes of a soldier who had insulted her and was trying to commit an outrage upon her. When Sertorius heard of this he put to death the whole cohort that was supposed to be addicted to such brutality, although it was composed of Romans. Then the armies were separated by the advent of winter.
116
[sect. 110]
When spring came they resumed hostilities, Metellus and Pompey coming from the Pyrenees mountains, where they had wintered, and Sertorius and Perpenna from Lusitania. They met near the town of Sucro. While the fight was going on flashes of lightning came unexpectedly from a clear sky, but these trained soldiers were not in the least dismayed. They continued the fight, with heavy slaughter on both sides, until Metellus defeated Perpenna and plundered his camp. On the other hand, Sertorius defeated Pompey, who received a dangerous wound from a spear in the thigh, and this put an end to that battle. Sertorius had a white fawn that was tame and allowed to move about freely. When this fawn was not visible Sertorius considered it a bad omen. He became low-spirited and abstained from fighting; nor did he mind the enemy's scoffing at the fawn. When she made her appearance running through the woods Sertorius would run to meet her and, as though he were inspired by her, he would begin to harass the enemy. Not long afterward Sertorius fought a great battle near Seguntia, lasting from noon till night. Sertorius fought on horseback and vanquished Pompey, killing nearly 6000 of his men and losing about half that number himself. Metellus at the same time destroyed 117 about 5000 of Perpenna's army. The day after this battle Sertorius, with a large renforcement of barbarians, attacked the camp of Metellus unexpectedly towards evening with the intention of besieging it with a trench, but Pompey hastened up and caused Sertorius to desist from his bold enterprise. In this way they passed the summer, and again they separated to winter quarters.
118
[sect. 111]
The following year, which was in the 176th Olympiad, 119 two countries were acquired by the Romans by bequest. Bithynia was left to them by Nicomedes, and Cyrene by Ptolemy Apion, of the house of the Lagid. There were wars and wars; the Sertorian was raging in Spain, the Mithridatic in the East, that of the pirates on the entire sea, and another one around Crete against the Cretans themselves, besides the gladiatorial war in Italy, which started suddenly and became very serious. Although distracted by so many conflicts the Romans sent another army of two legions into Spain. With these and the other forces in their hands Metellus and Pompey again descended from the Pyrenees mountains to the Ebro and Sertorius and Perpenna advanced from Lusitania to meet them. At this juncture many of the soldiers of Sertorius deserted to Metellus.
[sect. 112]
Sertorius was so exasperated by this that he visited savage and barbarous punishment upon many of his men and fell into disrepute in consequence. The soldiers blamed him particularly because wherever he went he surrounded himself with a body-guard of Celtiberian spearmen instead of Romans, removing the latter in favor of the former. Nor could they bear to be reproached with treachery by him while they were serving under an enemy of the Roman people. That they should be charged with bad faith by Sertorius while they were acting in bad faith to their country on his account, was the very thing that vexed them most. Nor did they consider it just that those who remained with the standards should be condemned because others deserted. Moreover, the Celtiberians took this occasion to insult them as men under suspicion. Still they were not altogether alienated from Sertorius since they derived advantages from his service, for there was no other man of that period more skilled in the art of war or more successful in it. For this reason, and on account of the rapidity of his movements, the Celtiberians gave him the name of Hannibal, whom they considered the boldest and most crafty general ever known in their country. In this way the army stood affected toward Sertorius. The forces of Metellus overran many of his towns and brought the men belonging to them under subjection. While Pompey was laying siege to Pallantia and underrunning the walls with wooden supports, Sertorius suddenly appeared on the scene and raised the siege. Pompey hastily set fire to the timbers and retreated to Metellus. Sertorius rebuilt the part of the wall which had fallen and then attacked his enemies who were encamped around the castle of Calagurris and killed 3000 of them. And so this year went by in Spain.
120
121
[sect. 113]
In the following year the Roman generals plucked 122 up rather more courage and advanced in an audacious manner against the towns that adhered to Sertorius, drew many away from him, assaulted others, and were much elated by their success. No great battle was fought, but again
123 . . . until the following year, when they advanced again even more audaciously. Sertorius was now 124 evidently misled by a god, for he relaxed his labors, fell 125 into habits of luxury, and gave himself up to women, and to carousing and drinking, for which reason he was defeated continually. He became hot-tempered, from various suspicions, and extremely cruel in punishment, and distrustful of everybody,
126 so much so that Perpenna, who had belonged to the faction of Lepidus and had come hither as a volunteer with a considerable army, began to fear for his own safety and formed a conspiracy with ten other men against him. The conspiracy was betrayed, some of the guilty ones were punished and others fled, but Perpenna escaped detection in some unaccountable manner and applied himself all the more to carry out the design. As Sertorius was never without his guard of spearmen, Perpenna invited him to a banquet, plied him and his guards with wine, and assassinated him after the feast.
[sect. 114]
The soldiers straightway rose in tumult and anger against Perpenna, their hatred of Sertorius being suddenly turned to affection for him, as people generally mollify their anger toward the dead, and when the one who has injured them is no longer before their eyes recall his virtues with tender memory. Reflecting on their present situation they despised Perpenna as though he had been a private individual, for they considered that the bravery of Sertorius had been their only salvation. They were angry with Perpenna, and the barbarians were no less so; most of all were the Lusitanians, of whose services Sertorius had especially availed himself. When the will of Sertorius was opened a bequest to Perpenna was found in it, and thereupon still greater anger and hatred of him entered into the minds of all, since he had committed such an abominable crime, not merely against his ruler and commanding general, but against his friend and benefactor. And they would not have abstained from violence had not Perpenna bestirred himself, making gifts to some and promises to others. Some he terrified with threats and some he killed in order to strike terror into the rest. He came forward and made a speech to the multitude, and released from confinement some whom Sertorius had imprisoned, and dismissed some of the Spanish hostages. Reduced to submission in this way they obeyed him as prtor (for he held the next rank to Sertorius) yet they were not without bitterness toward him even then. As he grew bolder he became very cruel in punishments, and put to death three of the nobility who had fled together from Rome to him, and also his own nephew.
[sect. 115]
As Metellus had gone to other parts of Spain,-- for he considered it no longer a difficult task for Pompey alone to vanquish Perpenna, -- these two skirmished and made tests of each other for several days, but did not bring their whole strength into the field. On the tenth day, however, a great battle was fought between them. They resolved to decide the contest by one engagement--Pompey because he despised the generalship of Perpenna; Perpenna because he did not believe that his army would long remain faithful to him, and he could now engage with nearly his whole strength. Pompey, as might have been expected, soon got the better of this inferior general and disaffected army. Perpenna was defeated all along the line and concealed himself in a thicket, more fearful of his own troops than of the enemy's. He was seized by some horsemen and dragged toward Pompey's headquarters, loaded with the execrations of his own men, as the murderer of Sertorius, and crying out that he could give Pompey a great deal of information about the factions in Rome. This he said either because it was true, or in order to be brought safe to Pompey's presence, but the latter sent orders to kill him before bringing him into his presence, fearing lest the news that Perpenna wanted to communicate should be the source of new troubles at Rome. Pompey seems to have behaved very prudently in this matter, and his action added to his high reputation. So ended the war in Spain with the life of Sertorius. I think that if he had lived longer the war would not have ended so soon or so successfully.127
