Quintus Sertorius
Quintus Sertorius was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian Peninsula. Defying the regime of Sulla, Sertorius became the independent ruler of Hispania for most of a decade until his assassination.
Sertorius first became prominent during the Cimbrian War fighting under Gaius Marius, and then served Rome in the Social War. After Lucius Cornelius Sulla blocked Sertorius' attempt at the plebeian tribunate, following Sulla's consulship, Sertorius joined with Cinna and Marius in the civil war of 87 BC. He led in the assault on Rome and restrained the reprisals that followed. During Cinna's repeated consulships he was elected praetor, likely in 85 or 84 BC. He criticised Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and other Marians' leadership of the anti-Sullan forces during the civil war with Sulla and was, late in the war, given command of Hispania.
In late 82 BC Sertorius was proscribed by Sulla and forced from his province. However, he soon returned in early 80 BC, taking in and leading many Marian and Cinnan exiles in a prolonged war, representing himself as a Roman proconsul resisting the Sullan regime at Rome. He gathered support from other Roman exiles and the native Iberian tribes – in part by using his tamed white fawn to claim he had divine favour – and employed irregular and guerrilla warfare to repeatedly defeat commanders sent from Rome to subdue him. He allied with Mithridates VI of Pontus and Cilician pirates in his struggle against the Roman government.
At the height of his power, Sertorius controlled nearly all of Hispania. He sustained his anti-Sullan resistance for many years, despite substantial efforts to subdue him by the Sullan regime and its generals Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and Pompey. After defeating Pompey in 76 BC at the Battle of Lauron however, he suffered repeated setbacks in later years. By 73 BC his allies had lost confidence in his leadership; his lieutenant Marcus Perperna Veiento assassinated him in 73 or 72 BC. His cause fell in defeat to Pompey shortly thereafter. The Greek biographer and essayist Plutarch chose Sertorius as the focus of one of his biographies in Parallel Lives, where he was paired with Eumenes of Cardia, one of the post-Alexandrine Diadochi.
Early life and career
Sertorius was born in Nursia in Sabine territory around 126 BC. The Sertorius family were of equestrian status. It appears that he did not have any noteworthy ancestors and was thus a novus homo, ie the first of his family to join the Senate. Sertorius' father died before he came of age and his mother, Rhea, focused all her energies on raising her only son. She made sure he received the best education possible for a young man of his status. In return, according to Plutarch, he became excessively fond of his mother. Having inherited his father's clients, like many other young rural aristocrats, Sertorius sought to begin a political career and thus moved to Rome in his mid-to-late teens trying to make it big as an orator and jurist.Sertorius' style of rhetoric was "blunt" but effective and bold. He made a sufficient impression on the young Cicero to merit a special mention in a later treatise on oratory, in which Cicero describes Sertorius' speaking style as talented but unpolished:
After his undistinguished career in Rome as a jurist and an orator, he entered the military. Sertorius' first recorded campaign was under Quintus Servilius Caepio as a staff officer and ended at the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC, where he showed unusual courage. When the battle was lost, Sertorius escaped while wounded by swimming across the Rhone, apparently still with his weapons and armour. This became a minor legend in antiquity, still remembered in the time of Ammian.
Service under Gaius Marius
Serving under Gaius Marius, sometime between the autumns of 104 and 102 BC, Sertorius spied on the Germanic tribes that had defeated Caepio, probably disguised as a Gaul. Marius may have sought Sertorius out due to their experience fighting against the Germans, as he likely wanted information regarding enemy tactics and movements. Sertorius probably did not know enough of the German languages to comprehend detailed information, but could report on their numbers and formations: "after seeing or hearing what was of importance", he returned to Marius.Sertorius became well-known and trusted by Marius during his service with him. He almost certainly fought with his commander at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC and the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BC, in which the Teutones, Ambrones, and Cimbri were decisively defeated. Some scholars believe that Sertorius' tactics and strategies during his revolt in Hispania greatly resembled those of Marius, and conclude that Sertorius' earlier service under Marius was an important learning experience. What Sertorius did for the next three years is unclear, but he probably continued to serve in the military. Sertorius eventually travelled to Hispania Citerior to serve its governor, Titus Didius, as military tribune in 97 BC.
Pacification of Castulo
During his service, Sertorius was posted to the Roman-controlled Oretani town of Castulo. The local Roman garrison was hated by the natives for their lack of discipline and constant drinking, and Sertorius either arrived too late to stop their impropriety or was unable to. The natives invited a neighbouring tribe to free the town of the garrison, and they killed many of the Roman soldiers. Sertorius escaped and gathered the other surviving soldiers, who still had their weapons. He secured the unguarded exits of the town, and then led his men inside, killing all native men of military age irrespective of participation in the revolt. Once he learned some attackers had come from a neighbouring town, he had his men wear the armour of the slain natives and led them there. Probably arriving at dawn, the town opened the gates for Sertorius and his men, convinced they were their warriors returning with loot from the slain Roman garrison. Sertorius then killed many of the towns' inhabitants and sold the rest into slavery.Later in Hispania during his revolt, Sertorius did not quarter his soldiers in native cities, "noting the stupidity of a policy which would cause rebellion in a hostile city, hostility in a neutral one, and corrupt the garrison into the bargain". The incident at Castulo earned Sertorius considerable fame in Hispania and abroad, aiding his future political career. During his military tribunate Sertorius became familiar with the Iberian methods of war, namely guerrilla warfare, which he would later use to great effect in his revolt.
Didius returned to Rome in June 93 BC to celebrate a triumph, but it is not known whether Sertorius immediately returned with him or remained under his successor.
Social War and civil unrest
In 92 BC, upon his return from his military tribunate in Hispania, Sertorius was elected quaestor and assigned Cisalpine Gaul in the year 91. His quaestorship was unusual in that he largely governed the province while the actual governor, perhaps Gaius Coelius Caldus, spent time across the Alps subduing remnants of the Cimbric invasion. The same year, the Social War broke out, and Sertorius contributed by levying soldiers and obtaining weapons. He may have done more, though the existing sources do not record it. According to the historian Sallust:His quaestorship may have been prorogued into 90 BC. Between 90–89 BC he almost certainly led as a commander and fought, along with providing men and materiel to the southern theatres of the war. He served under a series of commanders, probably Marius and Lucius Porcius Cato, most certainly under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo. Sertorius fought in an "especially bold" manner during the war, and sustained a wound which cost him the use of one of his eyes.
Upon his return to Rome he apparently enjoyed the reputation of a war hero. Sertorius then ran for tribune of the Plebs in 89 or 88 BC, but Lucius Cornelius Sulla thwarted his efforts, causing Sertorius to oppose Sulla. Sulla's reasons for doing so are unclear. It may have originated in a personal quarrel since both men served under Marius earlier in their careers. It is also equally possible Sulla were uncertain about what manner of tribune Sertorius would be, and not being able to rely on his obedience led to their opposition. Knowing Sertorius was popular with the common people and associated with Marius may have been enough to thwart his ambitions. In any case, Sertorius was a senator by 87 BC, likely adlected due to his earlier.
Sulla's consulship and the ''bellum Octavianum''
In 88 BC, after Publius Sulpicius Rufus and Marius supplanted his eastern command, Sulla marched his legions on Rome and took the capital. He took revenge on his enemies and forced Marius into exile, then left Italy to fight the First Mithridatic War against Mithridates VI of Pontus. Sulla did not harm Sertorius, probably because he had not participated in Marius and Rufus' actions. After Sulla left, violence erupted between Sullan loyalists, led by the consul Gnaeus Octavius, and the Marians, led by the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Cinna, as "the enemy of his enemy " and "not so much... an old ally of Marius as the newly emerging leader of those who disapproved of Sulla's coup" represented a re-emergence of Sertorius' political fortunes. As a result of this, and remembering Sulla's opposition when he ran for tribune, Sertorius declared for the Marian faction.Cinna was driven from Rome in 87 BC during the Bellum Octavianum. Sertorius, as one of his allies, aided him in recruiting ex-legionaries and drumming up enough support to enable him to march on Rome. When Marius returned from exile in Africa to aid the Marian cause, Sertorius opposed granting him any command either out of fear his position would be diminished, or because he feared Marius' vindictiveness and what he would do when Rome was retaken. Sertorius advised not to trust Marius, and although he greatly disliked Marius by then, he consented to Marius' return given he came at Cinna's request.
In October 87 BC, Cinna marched on Rome. During the siege, Sertorius commanded one of Cinna's divisions stationed at the Colline Gate and fought an inconclusive battle with troops commanded by Pompeius Strabo. Sertorius and Marius also bridged the Tiber to prevent supply from reaching the city by river. After Octavius surrendered Rome to the forces of Marius, Cinna, and Sertorius, Sertorius abstained from the proscriptions and killings his fellow commanders engaged in. Sertorius went so far as to rebuke Marius and move Cinna to moderation. After Marius' death he, probably with Cinna's approval, annihilated Marius' slave army which was still terrorizing Rome.