Quintus Sertorius - Sertorian War

Sertorian War

The North Africa success won him the fame and admiration of the people of Hispania, particularly that of the Lusitanians in the west (in modern Portugal), whom Roman generals and proconsuls of Sulla's party had plundered and oppressed. The Lusitanians then offered Sertorius to be their general, and when arriving to their lands, bringing additional forces from Africa, he held supreme authority and began conquering the neighbouring territories of Hispania (modern Spain).

Brave, noble, and gifted with eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress them favourably, and the native warriors, whom he organized, spoke of him as the "new Hannibal." His skill as a general was extraordinary, as he repeatedly defeated forces many times his own size. Many Roman refugees and deserters joined him, and with these and his Hispanian volunteers he completely defeated several of Sulla's generals (Fufidius, Domitius Calvinus and to some less-direct extent Thoranius) and drove Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had been specifically sent against him from Rome, out of Lusitania, or Hispania Ulterior as the Romans called it at the time.

Sertorius owed some of his success to his prodigious ability as a statesman. His goal was to build a stable government in Hispania with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he wished to civilize along the lines of the Roman model. He established a senate of 300 members, drawn from Roman emigrants (probably including some from the highest nobles of Hispania) and kept a Hispanian bodyguard. For the children of the chief native families he provided a school at Osca (Huesca), where they received a Roman education and even adopted the dress and education of Roman youths, following the Roman practice of taking hostages. Late in his campaign, a revolt of the native people arose and Sertorius killed several of the children that he had sent to school at Osca, and sold many others into slavery.

Although he was strict and severe with his soldiers, he was particularly considerate to the people in general, and made their burdens as light as possible. It seems clear that he had a peculiar gift for evoking the enthusiasm of the native tribes, and we can understand well how he was able to use the famous white fawn, a present from one of the natives that was supposed to communicate to him the advice of the goddess Diana, to his advantage.

For six years he held sway over Hispania. In 77, he was joined -- at the insistence of the forces which he brought with him -- by Marcus Perpenna Vento from Rome, with a following of Roman nobles and a sizeable Roman army (fifty-three cohorts). Also that year, Pompey was sent to help Metellus conquer Hispania and finish Sertorius off. Contemptuously calling Pompey Sulla's pupil, Sertorius proved himself more than a match for his adversaries: he razed Lauron, a city allied to Rome, after a battle in which Pompey's forces were ambushed and defeated; he nearly captured Pompey at the battle of Sucro when Pompey decided to fight Sertorius without waiting for Metellus Pius; but was indecisively beaten at Saguntum. However, Pompey wrote to Rome for reinforcements, without which, he said, he and Metellus Pius would be driven out of Hispania. But from - 75 on, Pompey was gaining the upper hand, and he and Metellus began to capture city after city. Though he was still able to win significant victories, Sertorius was losing the war, and his authority on his men had declined.

Sertorius was in league with the Cilician pirates, who had bases all across the Mediterranean, was negotiating with the formidable Mithridates VI of Pontus, and was in communication with the insurgent slaves in Italy. But due to jealousies among the Roman officers who served under him and the Hispanians of higher rank who began to weaken his influence with the Lusitani tribes, he was assassinated at a banquet at Perpenna Vento's instigation in 72 BC. Appian notes Sulla's consistent elimination of enemy commanders by means of treachery. At the time of his death, he was on the verge of successfully establishing an independent Roman republic in Hispania, which crumbled with the renewed onslaught of Pompey and Metellus, who crushed Perpenna's army and eliminated the remaining opposition.

See Plutarch's lives of Sertorius and Pompey; Appian, Bell. civ. and Hispanica; the fragments of Sallust; Dio Cassius xxxvi.