Chapter VI: Part 6

XVIII. Now, as long as Sertorius had to oppose Metellus, he was generally considered to owe his success to the old age and natural tardiness of Metellus, who was no match for a daring man, at the head of a force more like a band of robbers than a regular army. But when Pompeius had crossed the Pyrenees, and Sertorius had met him in the field, and he and Pompeius had mutually offered one another every opportunity for a display of generalship, and Sertorius had the advantage in stratagem and caution, his fame was noised abroad as far as Rome, and he was considered the most able general of his age in the conduct of a war: for the reputation of Pompeius was no small one; but at that time particularly he was enjoying the highest repute by reason of his distinguished exploits in the cause of Sulla, for which Sulla gave him the name of Magnus, which means Great, and Pompeius obtained triumphal honours before he had a beard. All this made many of the cities which were subject to Sertorius turn their eyes towards Pompeius, and feel inclined to pass over to him; but their intentions were checked by the loss at Lauron,[151] which happened contrary to all expectation. Sertorius was besieging this town, when Pompeius came with all his force to relieve it. There was a hill, well situated for enabling an enemy to act against the place, which Sertorius made an effort to seize, and Pompeius to prevent its being occupied. Sertorius succeeded in getting possession of the hill, on which Pompeius made his troops stop, and was well pleased at what had happened, thinking that Sertorius was hemmed in between the city and his own army; and he sent a message to the people in Lauron, bidding them be of good cheer, and to keep to their walls and look on while Sertorius was blockaded. Sertorius smiled when he heard of this, and said he would teach Sulla's pupil (for so he contemptuously called Pompeius) that a general should look behind him rather than before. As he said this he pointed out to his men, who were thus blockaded, that there were six thousand heavy armed soldiers, whom he had left in the encampment, which he had quitted before he seized the hill, in order that if Pompeius should turn against them, the soldiers in camp might attack him in the rear. And Pompeius too saw this when it was too late, and he did not venture to attack Sertorius for fear of being surrounded; and though he could not for shame leave the citizens in their danger, he was obliged to sit there and see them ruined before his eyes; for the barbarians in despair surrendered. Sertorius spared their lives, and let them all go; but he burnt the city, not for revenge or because he was cruel, for of all commanders Sertorius appears to have least given way to passion; but he did it to shame and humble the admirers of Pompeius, and that the barbarians might say that Pompeius did not help his allies, though he was close at hand, and all but warmed with the flames of their city.

XIX. However, Sertorius was now sustaining several defeats, though he always saved himself and those with him from defeat; but his losses were occasioned by the other generals. Yet he gained more credit from the means by which he repaired his defeats than the generals on the other side who won the victories; an instance of which occurred in the battle against Pompeius, on the Sucro, and another in the battle near Tuttia,[152] against Pompeius[153] and Metellus together. Now the battle on the Sucro is said to have been brought about by the eagerness of Pompeius, who wished Metellus to have no share in the victory. Sertorius, on his part, also wished to engage Pompeius before Metellus arrived; and, drawing out his forces when the evening was coming on, he commenced the battle, thinking that, as the enemy were strangers and unacquainted with the ground, the darkness would be a disadvantage to them, whether they were the pursued or the pursuers. When the battle began, it happened that Sertorius was not engaged with Pompeius, but with Afranius at first, who commanded the left wing of the enemy, while Sertorius commanded his own right. But, hearing that those who were opposed to Pompeius were giving way before his attack and being defeated, Sertorius left the right wing to the care of other generals, and hastened to the support of the wing that was giving way. Bringing together the soldiers who were already flying, and those who were still keeping their ranks, he encouraged them and made a fresh charge upon Pompeius, who was pursuing, and put his men to the rout; on which occasion Pompeius himself nearly lost his life, and had a wonderful escape after being wounded. The Libyans of Sertorius seized the horse of Pompeius, which was decked with golden ornaments and loaded with trappings; but while they were dividing the booty and quarrelling about it, they neglected the pursuit. As soon as Sertorius quitted the right wing to relieve the other part of the army, Afranius[154] put to flight his opponents and drove them to their camp, which, he entered with the captives, it being now dark, and began to plunder, knowing nothing of the defeat of Pompeius, and being unable to stop his soldiers from seizing the booty. In the mean time Sertorius returned, after defeating the enemy who were opposed to him, and falling on the soldiers of Afranius, who were all in disorder and consequently panic-stricken, he slaughtered many of them. In the morning he again armed his troops and came out to fight; but observing that Metellus was near, he broke up his order of battle, and marched off saying, "If that old woman had not come up, I would have given this boy a good drubbing by way of lesson, and have sent him back to Rome."

XX. About this time Sertorius was much dispirited, because that deer[155] of his could nowhere be found; for he was thus deprived of a great means of cheering the barbarians, who then particularly required consolation. It happened that some men, who were rambling about at night for other purposes, fell in with the deer and caught it, for they knew it by the colour. Sertorius hearing of this, promised to give them a large sum of money if they would mention it to nobody; and, concealing the deer for several days, he came forward with a joyful countenance to the tribunal, and told the barbarian chiefs that the deity prognosticated to him in his sleep some great good fortune. He then ascended the tribunal, and transacted business with those who applied to him. The deer being let loose by those who had charge of it close by, and, seeing Sertorius, bounded joyfully up to the tribunal, and, standing by him, placed its head on his knees, and touched his right hand with its mouth, having been accustomed to do this before. Sertorius cordially returned the caresses of the animal, and even shed tears. The spectators were at first surprised; then clapping their hands and shouting, they conducted Sertorius to his residence, considering him to be a man superior to other mortals and beloved by the gods; and they were full of good hopes.

XXI. Sertorius, who had reduced the enemy to the greatest straits in the plains about Seguntum[156] was compelled to fight a battle with them when they came down to plunder and forage. The battle was well contested on both sides. Memmius, one of the most skillful of the commanders under Pompeius, fell in the thick of the fight, and Sertorius, who was victorious, and making a great slaughter of those who opposed him, attempted to get at Metellus, who stood his ground with a resolution above his years, and, while fighting bravely, was struck by a spear. This made the Romans who were on the spot, as well as those who heard of it, ashamed to desert their leader, and inspired them with courage against their enemies. After covering Metellus with their shields and rescuing him from danger, by making a vigorous onset they drove the Iberians from their ground; and, as the victory now changed sides, Sertorius, with a view of securing a safe retreat for his men, and contriving the means of getting together another army without any interruption, retired to a strong city in the mountains, and began to repair the walls and strengthen the gates, though his object was anything rather than to stand a siege: but his design was to deceive the enemy, in which he succeeded; for they sat down before the place, thinking they should take it without difficulty, and in the mean time they let the defeated barbarians escape, and allowed Sertorius to collect a fresh army. It was got together by Sertorius sending officers to the cities, and giving orders that when they had collected a good body of men, they should dispatch a messenger to him. When the messenger came, he broke through the besiegers without any difficulty and joined his troops; and now he again advanced against the enemy in great force, and began to cut off their land supplies by ambuscades, and hemming them in, and showing himself at every point, inasmuch as his attacks were made with great expedition; and he cut off all their maritime supplies by occupying the coast with his piratical vessels, so that the generals opposed to him were obliged to separate, one to march off into Gaul, and Pompeius to winter among the Vaccæi[157] in great distress for want of supplies, and to write to the Senate, that he would lead his army out of Iberia, if they did not send him money, for he had spent all his own in defence of Italy. There was great talk in Rome that Sertorius would come to Italy before Pompeius[158] to such difficulties did Sertorius, by his military abilities, reduce the first and ablest of the generals of that age.

XXII. Metellus also showed, that he feared the man and thought he was powerful; for he made proclamation, that if any Roman killed Sertorius he would give him a hundred talents of silver and twenty thousand jugera of land; and, if he was an exile, permission to return, to Rome: thus declaring that he despaired of being able to defeat Sertorius in the field, and therefore would purchase his life by treachery. Besides this, Metellus was so elated by a victory which on one occasion he gained over Sertorius, and so well pleased with his success, that he was proclaimed Imperator[159] and the cities received him in his visits to them with sacrifices and altars. It is also said, that he allowed chaplets to be placed on his head, and accepted invitations to sumptuous feasts, at which he wore a triumphal vest; and Victories[160] which were contrived to move by machinery, descended and distributed golden trophies and crowns, and companies of youths and women sang epinician hymns in honour of him. For this he was with good reason ridiculed, for that after calling Sertorius a runaway slave of Sulla, and a remnant of the routed party of Carbo, he was so puffed up and transported with delight because he had gained an advantage over Sertorius, who had been compelled to retire. But it was a proof of the magnanimous character of Sertorius, first, that he gave the name of Senate to the Senators who fled from Rome and joined him, and that he appointed quæstors and generals from among them, and arranged everything of this kind according to Roman usage; and next, that though he availed himself of the arms, the money and the cities of the Iberians, he never yielded to them one *tittle of the Roman supremacy, but he appointed Romans to be their generals and commanders, considering that he was recovering freedom for the Romans, and was not strengthening the Iberians against the Romans; for Sertorius loved his country and had a great desire to return home. Notwithstanding this, in his reverses he behaved like a brave man, and never humbled himself before his enemies; and after his victories he would send to Metellus and to Pompeius, and declare that he was ready to lay down his arms and to live in a private station, if he might be allowed to return home; for, he said, he would rather be the obscurest citizen in Rome than an exile from his country, though he were proclaimed supreme ruler of all other countries in the world. It is said, that he longed to return home chiefly on account of his mother, who brought him up after his father's death, and to whom he was completely devoted. At the time when his friends in Iberia invited him to take the command, he heard of the death of his mother, and he was near dying of grief. He lay in his tent for seven days without giving the watchword, or being seen by any of his friends; and it was with difficulty that his fellow-generals and those of like rank with himself, who had assembled about his tent, prevailed on him to come out to the soldiers, and take a share in the administration of affairs, which were going on well. This made many people think that Sertorius was naturally a man of mild temper, and well disposed to a quiet life; but that, owing to uncontrollable causes, and contrary to his wishes, he entered on the career of a commander, and then, when he could not ensure his safety, and was driven to arms by his enemies, he had recourse to war as the only means by which he could protect his life.

XXIII. His negociations with Mithridates also were a proof of his magnanimity; for now that Mithridates, rising from the fall that he had from Sulla, as it were, to a second contest, had again attacked Asia, and the fame of Sertorius was great, and had gone abroad to all parts, and those who sailed from the West had filled the Pontus with the reports about him, as if with so many foreign wares, Mithridates was moved to send an embassy to him, being urged thereto mainly by the fulsome exaggerations of his flatterers, who compared Sertorius to Hannibal and Mithridates to Pyrrhus, and said that if the Romans were attacked on both sides, they could not hold out against such great abilities and powers combined, when the most expert of commanders had joined the greatest of kings. Accordingly, Mithridates sent ambassadors to Iberia, with letters to Sertorius and proposals. On his part he offered to supply money and ships for the war, and he asked from Sertorius a confirmation of his title to the whole of Asia, which he had given up to the Romans pursuant to the treaty made with Sulla. Sertorius assembled a council, which he called a senate, and all the members advised to accept the king's proposal, and to be well content with it; they said the king only asked of them a name and an empty answer touching things that were not in their power, in return for which they were to receive what they happened to stand most in need of. But Sertorius would not listen to this; he said he did not grudge Mithridates having Bithynia and Cappadocia; these were nations that were accustomed to a king, and the Romans had nothing to do with them; but the province which belonged to the Romans by the justest of titles, which Mithridates took from them and kept, from which, after a contest, he was driven out by Fimbria, and which he gave up by treaty with Sulla,[161] -that province he would never allow to fall again into the power of Mithridates; for it was fit that the Roman state should be extended by his success, not that his success should be owing to her humiliation. To a generous mind, victory by honest means was a thing to desire, but life itself was not worth having with dishonour.

XXIV. When this was reported to Mithridates he was amazed, and it is said that he remarked to his friends--what terms, then, will Sertorius impose when he is seated on the Palatium,[162] if now, when he is driven to the shores of the Atlantic, he fixes limits to our kingdom, and threatens us with war if we make any attempt upon Asia? However, a treaty was made, and ratified by oath, on the following terms: Mithridates[163] was to have Cappadocia and Bithynia, and Sertorius was to send him a general and soldiers; and Sertorius was to receive from Mithridates three thousand talents, and forty ships. Sertorius sent as general to Asia Marcus Marius, one of the Senators who had fled to him; and Mithridates, after assisting him to take some of the Asiatic cities,[164] followed Marius as he entered them with the fasces and axes, voluntarily taking the second place and the character of an inferior. Marius restored some of the cities to liberty, and he wrote to others to announce to them their freedom from taxation through the power of Sertorius; so that Asia, which was much troubled by the Publicani,[165] and oppressed by the rapacity and insolence of the soldiers quartered there, was again raised on the wings of hope, and longed for the expected change of masters.

XXV. In Iberia, the senators and nobles about Sertorius, as soon as they were put into a condition to hope that they were a match for the opposite party, and their fears were over, began to feel envious, and had a foolish jealousy of the power of Sertorius. Perpenna encouraged this feeling, being urged by the empty pride of high birth to aspire to the supreme command, and he secretly held treasonable language to those who were favourable to his designs. "What evil dæmon," he would say, "has got hold of us, and carried us from bad to worse--us who did not brook to stay at home and do the bidding of Sulla, though in a manner he was lord of all the earth and sea at once, but coming here with ill luck, in order to live free, have voluntarily become slaves by making ourselves the guards of Sertorius in his exile, and while we are called a senate, a name jeered at by all who hear it, we submit to insults, and orders, and sufferings as great as the Iberians and Lusitanians endure." Their minds filled with such suggestions as these, the majority did not, indeed, openly desert Sertorius, for they feared his power, but they secretly damaged all his measures, and they oppressed the barbarians by severe treatment and exactions, on the pretext that it was by the order of Sertorius. This caused revolts and disturbances in the cities; and those who were sent to settle and pacify these outbreaks returned after causing more wars, and increasing the existing insubordination; so that Sertorius, contrary to his former moderation and mildness, did a grievous wrong to the sons of the Iberians, who were educating at Osca,[166] by putting some to death, and selling others as slaves.

XXVI. Now Perpenna, having got several to join him in his conspiracy, gained over Manlius, one of those who were in command. This Manlius was much attached to a beautiful boy, and to give the youth a proof of his attachment he told him of the design, and urged him not to care for his other lovers; but to give his affections to him alone, as he would be a great man in a few days. The youth reported what Manlius said to Aufidius, another of his lovers, to whom he was more attached. On hearing this, Aufidius was startled, for he was engaged in the conspiracy against Sertorius, but he did not know that Manlius was a party to it. But when the youth named Perpenna and Graecinus,[167] and some others whom Aufidius knew to be in the conspiracy, he was confounded, yet he made light of the story to the youth, and told him to despise Manlius for a lying braggart; but he went to Perpenna, and, showing him the critical state of affairs, and the danger, urged him to the deed. The conspirators followed his advice, and having engaged a man to bring letters they introduced him to Sertorius. The letters gave information of a victory gained by one of the generals, and a great slaughter of the enemy. Upon this Sertorius was overjoyed, and offered a sacrifice for the happy tidings; and Perpenna proposed to feast him and his friends (and they were of the number of the conspirators), and after much entreaty he prevailed on Sertorius to come. Now whenever Sertorius was present, an entertainment was conducted with great propriety and decorum; for he would not tolerate any indecent act or expression, but accustomed his companions to enjoy mirth and merriment with orderly behaviour, and without any excess; but, on this occasion, in the midst of the feast, seeking to begin a quarrel, they openly used obscene language, and, pretending to be drunk, behaved indecently, for the purpose of irritating Sertorius. Whether it was that he was vexed at this disorderly conduct, or had now suspected their design by the flagging of the conversation[168] and their unusual contemptuous manner towards him, he changed his posture on the couch by throwing himself on his back, as if he was paying no attention to them, and not listening. On Perpenna taking a cup of wine, and in the middle of the draught throwing it from him and so making a noise, which was the signal agreed on, Antonius, who lay next to Sertorius, struck him with his sword. On receiving the blow, Sertorius turned himself, and at the same time attempted to rise, but Antonius, throwing himself upon his chest, held his hands, and he was despatched by blows from many of the conspirators, without even making any resistance.

XXVII.[169] Now most of the Iberians immediately sent ambassadors to Pompeius and Metellus, to make their submission; those who remained Perpenna took under his command, and attempted to do something. After employing the means that Sertorius had got together, just so far as to disgrace himself, and show that he was not suited either to command or to obey, he engaged with Pompeius. Being quickly crushed by him and taken prisoner, he did not behave himself even in this extremity as a commander should do; but having got possession of the papers of Sertorius, he offered to Pompeius to show him autograph letters from consular men and persons of the highest influence at Rome, in which Sertorius was invited to Italy, and was assured that there were many who were desirous to change the present settlement of affairs, and to alter the constitution. Now Pompeius, by behaving on this occasion, not like a young man, but one whose understanding was well formed and disciplined, relieved Rome from great dangers and revolutions. He got together all those letters, and all the papers of Sertorius, and burnt them, without either reading them himself or letting any one else read them; and he immediately put Perpenna to death, through fear that there might be defection and disturbance if the names were communicated to others. Of the fellow-conspirators of Perpenna, some were brought to Pompeius, and put to death; and others, who fled to Libya, were pierced by the Moorish spears. Not one escaped, except Aufidius, the rival of Manlius, and this happened, either because he escaped notice, or nobody took any trouble about him, and he lived to old age, in some barbarian village, in poverty and contempt.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 101: If this is obscure, the fault is Plutarch's. His word for Fortune is [Greek: tuchê] τύχη which he has often used in the Life of Sulla. The word for Spontaneity is [Greek: to automaton] τὸ αὐτόματον, the Self-moved. The word for Elemental things is [Greek: ta hupokeimena] τὰ ὑποκειμένα. The word [Greek: hupokeimenon] ὑποκειμένον is used by Aristotle to signify both the thing of which something is predicated, the Subject of grammarians, and for the Substance, which is as it were the substratum on which actions operate. Aristotle (_Metaphys._ vi. vii. 3) says "Essence ([Greek: ousia] οὐσία) or Being is predicated, if not in many ways, in four at least; for the formal cause ([Greek: to ti ên einai] τὸ τὶ ἦν εἶναι), and the universal, and genus appear to be the essence of everything; and the fourth of these is the Substance ([Greek: to hupokeimenon] τὸ ὑποκειμένον). And the Substance is that of which the rest are predicated, but it is not predicated of any other thing. And Essence seems to be especially the first Substance; and such, in a manner, matter ([Greek: hulê] ὕλη) is said to be; and in another manner, form; and in a third, that which is from these. And I mean by matter ([Greek: hulê] ὕλη), copper, for instance; and by form, the figure of the idea; and by that which is from them, the statue in the whole," &c. I have translated [Greek: to ti ên einai] τὸ τὶ ἦν εἶναι by "formal cause," as Thomas Taylor has done, and according to the explanation of Trendelenburg, in his edition of Aristotle _On the Soul_, i. 1, § 2. It is not my business to explain Aristotle, but to give some clue to the meaning of Plutarch.

The word "accidentally" ([Greek: kata tuchên] κατὰ τύχην) is opposed to "forethought" ([Greek: pronoia] προνοία), "design," "providence." How Plutarch conceived Fortune, I do not know; nor do I know what Fortune and Chance mean in any language. But the nature of the contrast which he intends is sufficiently clear for his purpose.]

[Footnote 102: As to Attes, as Pausanias (vii. 17) names him, his history is given by Pausanias. There appears to be some confusion in his story. Herodotus (i. 36) has a story of an Atys, a son of Crœsus, who was killed while hunting a wild boar; and Adonis, the favourite of Venus, was killed by a wild boar. It is not known who this Arcadian Atteus was.

Actæon saw Diana naked while she was bathing, and was turned by her into a deer and devoured by his dogs. (Apollodorus, _Biblioth_. iii. 4; Ovidius, _Metamorph_. iii. 155.) The story of the other Actæon is told by Plutarch (_Amator. Narrationes_, c. 2).]

[Footnote 103: The elder Africanus, P. Cornelius Scipio, who defeated Hannibal B.C. 202, and the younger Africanus, the adopted son of the son of the elder Africanus, who took Carthage B.C. 146. See Life of Tib. Gracchus, c. 1, Notes.]

[Footnote 104: Ios, a small island of the Grecian Archipelago, now Nio, is mentioned among the places where Homer was buried. The name Ios resembles that of the Greek word for violet, ([Greek: ion] ίον). Smyrna, one of the members of the Ionian confederation, is mentioned among the birth places of Homer. It was an accident that the name of the town Smyrna was the same as the name for myrrh, _Smyrna_ ([Greek: smurnê] σμύρνη),x which was not a Greek word. Herodotus (iii. 112) says that it was the Arabians who procured myrrh.]

[Footnote 105: This Philippus was the father of Alexander the Great. He is said to have lost an eye from a wound by an arrow at the siege of Pydna Antigonus, one of the generals of Alexander, was named Cyclops, or the one-eyed. He accompanied Alexander in his Asiatic expedition, and in the division of the empire after Alexander's death he obtained a share and by his vigour and abilities he made himself the most powerful of the successors of Alexander. It is said that Apelles, who painted the portrait of Antigonus, placed him in profile in order to hide the defect of the one eye. Antigonus closed his long career at the battle of Ipsus B.C. 301, where he was defeated and killed. He was then eighty-one years of age.]

[Footnote 106: Plutarch's form is Annibas. I may have sometimes written it Hannibal. Thus we have Anno and Hanno. I don't know which is the true form. [I prefer to write it Hannibal.--A.S.]]

[Footnote 107: Plutarch has written the Life of Eumenes, whom he contrasts with Sertorius. Eumenes was one of the generals of Alexander who accompanied him to Asia. After Alexander's death, he obtained for his government a part of Asia Minor bordering on the Euxine, and extending as far east as Trapezus. The rest of his life is full of adventure. He fell into the hands of Antigonus B.C. 315, who put him to death.]

[Footnote 108: Nursia was in the country of the Sabini among the Apennines, and near the source of the Nar. It is now Norcia. The MSS. of Plutarch have Nussa.]

[Footnote 109: The date is B.C. 105. See the Life of Marius, c. 10, and Notes.]

[Footnote 110: Titus Didius and Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos were consuls B.C. 98. In B.C. 97 Didius was in Spain as Proconsul, and fought against the Celtiberi. Gellius (ii. 27) quotes a passage from the Historiæ of Sallustius, in which mention is made of Sertorius serving under Didius in Spain, and the character of Sertorius is given pretty nearly in the terms of Plutarch, who may have used Sallustius as one of his authorities. Didius is mentioned by Cicero, _Pro Cn. Plancio_, c. 25; and by Frontinus, i. 8. 5; ii. 10. 1; and by Appian (_Iberica_, c. 99). The passage in the text should be translated, "he was sent out under Didius as commander, and wintered in Iberia, in Castlo," &c. Plutarch has used the word [Greek: stratêgos] στρατηγός, which means prætor; but to make the statement correct, we must translate it Proconsul, or commander. See Life of Crassus, c. 4, Notes.]

[Footnote 111: Castlo, Castalo, or Castulo, is placed on the north bank of the Bætis, the Guadalquivir.]

[Footnote 112: See the Life of Marius, c. 32, Notes. The events that are briefly alluded to at the end of this chapter are described in the Lives of Marius and Sulla. The battle in the Forum is spoken of in the Life of Marius, c. 41.]

[Footnote 113: The same story is told in the Life of Marius, c. 44, where it is stated that Cinna and Sertorius combined to put these scoundrels out of the way; but the number that were massacred is not stated there.]

[Footnote 114: Compare the Life of Marius, c. 45, and of Sulla, c. 28, &c. Cinna was murdered by his soldiers two years after the death of Marius, and in his fourth consulship, B.C. 84. The younger Marius was Consul in B.C. 82, with Cn. Papirius Carbo for his colleague. This was Carbo's third consulship. According to Plutarch, Sertorius left Italy after the younger Marius was consul, and therefore not earlier than B.C. 82, unless we understand the passage in Plutarch as referring to the election of Marius, and not to the commencement of his consulship. Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 86) places the departure of Sertorius in the year B.C. 83.]

[Footnote 115: Sertorius had not been Consul, and therefore he was not now Proconsul. It is true that a man, who had not been Consul, might receive the government of a Province with the title of Proconsul. (See c. 7.) Sertorius may have assumed the title.]

[Footnote 116: If Sertorius stayed at Rome till the younger Marius was elected Consul, as Plutarch states in the sixth chapter, he probably saw what he is here represented as hearing.]

[Footnote 117: This Annius, surnamed Luscus, served under Q. Metellus in the Jugurthine War B.C. 107. (Sallust, _Jug. War_, c. 77.) Sulla gave him the command in Spain with the title of Proconsul B.C. 81. An extant medal seems to have been struck in honour of his Proconsulship. (Eckhel, _Doct. Num. Vet._ v. 134.)]

[Footnote 118: This town, which the Romans called Nova Carthago, was built by the Carthaginians at the close of the first Punic War B.C. 235, and so long as they kept possession of Spain it was their chief city. Livius (26. c. 42), describes the situation of New Carthage, now Cartagena, and one of the best harbours in Spain. Its position on the S.E. coast is favourable for communication with Africa.]

[Footnote 119: The maritime towns of Cilicia were for a long time the resort of a bold set of seamen and adventurers who scoured the Mediterranean and were as formidable to the people of Italy as the Barbary Corsairs were in the middle ages. It was one of the great merits of Cn. Pompeius Magnus that he cleared the seas of these scoundrels. See Lucullus, c. 37.]

[Footnote 120: The two islands of Yviça or Ibiça and Formentera, which belong to the Balearic group, were sometimes comprehended under the name of the Pityussæ or the Pine Islands (Strabo, 167, ed. Casaub.). The Greeks and Romans called Yviça, Ebusus. Iviça is hilly, and the high tracts are well covered with pine and fir.]

[Footnote 121: This is the old name of the Straits of Gibraltar, which is still retained in the modern form Cadiz. Gadeira, which the Romans called Gades, was an old Phœnician town, on the island of Leon, where Cadiz now stands. Strabo (p. 168, ed. Casaub.) says that Gades in his time (the beginning of the reign of Tiberius) was not inferior in population to any city except Rome, and was a place of great trade, as it is now.]

[Footnote 122: This river, now the Guadalquivir, gave the name of Bætica to one of the three provinces into which the Spanish Peninsula was ultimately divided by the Romans for the purposes of administration.]

[Footnote 123: This was the name for so much of the ocean that washes the west coast of Europe and Africa as the Greeks and Romans were acquainted with. The Greeks and Romans had no name for the Mediterranean.]

[Footnote 124: The only islands in the Atlantic that correspond to this description are Madeira and Porto Santo, but Porto Santo is forty miles north-east of Madeira. The distance of Madeira from the coast of Africa is about 400 miles or about 4000 stadia. The climate of Madeira is very temperate: the thermometer seldom sinks below 60°, though it sometimes rises as high as 90° of Fahrenheit. On the high and mountainous parts there are heavy dews, and rain falls at all seasons. Owing to the variety of surface and elevation the island produces both tropical products and those of temperate countries. The fame of this happy region had spread to all parts of the ancient world, though we cannot safely conclude that the islands were known by report to Homer. Horace in his 16th _Epode_ is probably alluding to these islands when he is speaking of the Civil Wars and of flying from their horrors in those beautiful lines:

Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus; arva beata
Petamus arva divites et insulas, &c.

]

[Footnote 125: The passage is in the fourth book of the 'Odyssey,' v. 563, and is quoted by Strabo (p. 31):

And there in sooth man's life is easiest;
Nor snow, nor raging storm, nor rain is there,
But ever gently breathing gales of zephyr
Oceanus sends up.

Strabo in another passage expresses an opinion that the Elysian fields were in the southern parts of Spain. That would at least be a good place for them.]

[Footnote 126: This region is the Mauritania of the Roman Geographers, the modern Marocco, and the town of Tigennis is the Roman Tingis, the modern Tangier, which is on the Atlantic coast of Africa, south-south-east of Gades. The circumstance of Tingis being attacked shows that the African campaign of Sertorius was in the north-western part of Marocco. Strabo mentions Tinga (p. 825). See also Plin. _H.N._ v. 1.]

[Footnote 127: The story of this giant is in the mythographers. Tumuli are found in many parts of the old and new world, and it seems probable that they were all memorials to the dead. The only surprising thing in this story is the size of the body; which each man may explain in his own way. There are various records in antient writers of enormous bones being found. Those found at Tegea under a smithy, which were supposed to be the bones of Orestes, were seven cubits long (Herodotus, i. 68), little more than the ninth part of the dimensions of Antæus: but Antæus was a giant and Orestes was not. See Strabo's remarks on this story (p. 829).]

[Footnote 128: See Life of Sulla, c. 17. I am not sure that I have given the right meaning of this passage. Plutarch may mean to say that he has said so much on this matter in honour of Juba.]

[Footnote 129: I have translated this passage literally and kept the word dæmon, which is the best way of enabling the reader to judge of the meaning; of the text. If the word "dæmon" is here translated "fortune," it may mislead. A like construction to the words [Greek: tô daimoni summetabalein to êthos] τῶ δαιμόνι συμμεταβαλεῖν τὸ ἧθος occurs in the Life of Lucullus, c. 39. The meaning of the whole passage must be considered with reference to the sense of dæmon, which is explained in the notes of the Life of Sulla, c. 6.]

[Footnote 130: The Lusitani occupied a part of the modern kingdom of Portugal.]

[Footnote 131: This story of the deer is told by Frontinus (_Stratagem,_ i. 11, 13), and by Gellius (xv. 22).]

[Footnote 132: He was of the Aurelia Gens.]

[Footnote 133: Is a small town on the coast, east of the mouth of the Bætis (Guadalquivir) and near the Straits of Gibraltar. The channel must be the Straits of Gibraltar.]

[Footnote 134: This is undoubtedly the right name, though it is corrupted in the MSS. See the various readings in Sintenis, and _Sulla_ (c. 31), to which he refers. However, the corrupt readings of some MSS. clearly show what the true reading is.]

[Footnote 135: Sintenis reads Domitius Calvisius. But it should be Calvinus: Calvinus was a cognomen of the Domitii. (See Livius, _Epitome_, lib. 90.) The person who is meant is L. Domitius Ahenobarbus. He fell in this battle on the Guadiana, where he was defeated by Hirtuleius. (Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Ahenobarbi, 19.)]

[Footnote 136: That is the province which the Romans called Tarraconensis, from the town of Tarraco, Tarragona. The Tarraconensis was the north-eastern part of the Spanish peninsula. The true name of Thoranius is Thorius.]

[Footnote 137: This was Q. Metellus Pius, the son of Numidicus, who was banished through the artifices of C. Marius. (Life of Marius, c. 7, &c.) He was Proconsul in Spain from B.C. 78 to 72, and was sent there in consequence of the success of Sertorius against Cotta and Fufidius.]

[Footnote 138: Some critics read Lucius Lollius. See the various readings in Sintenis: his name was L. Manilius.]

[Footnote 139: I should rather have translated it "Gaul about Narbo." Plutarch means the Roman Province in Gaul, which was called Narbonensis, from the town of Narbo Martius.]

[Footnote 140: Commonly called Pompey the Great, whose name occurs in the Lives of Sulla, Lucullus, and Crassus. Plutarch has written his Life at length.]

[Footnote 141: Probably the philosopher and pupil of Aristotle.]

[Footnote 142: Some writers would connect this name of a people with Langobriga, the name of a place. There were two places of the name, it is said, and one is placed near the mouth of the Douro. It is useless to attempt to fix the position of the Langobritæ from what Plutarch has said.]

[Footnote 143: Or Aquinus or Aquilius. Cornelius Aquinus was his name.]

[Footnote 144: Osca was a town in the north-east of Spain, probably Huesca in Aragon. Mannert observes that this school must have greatly contributed to fix the Latin language in Spain. Spain however already contained Roman settlers, and at a later period it contained numerous Roman colonies: in fact the Peninsula was completely Romanized, of which the Spanish language and the establishment of the Roman Law in Spain are the still existing evidence. The short-lived school of Sertorius could not have done much towards fixing the Latin language in Spain.]

[Footnote 145: The Bulla was of a round form. See the copy of one from the British Museum in Smith's 'Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities.' Kaltwasser refers to Plutarch's Life of Romulus, c. 20, and his 'Roman Questions,' Part 3, in which he explains what the Bulla is.]

[Footnote 146: The Greek word [Greek: kataspeisis] κατάσπεισις signifies a "pouring out." Kaltwasser refers to a passage in Cæsar's 'Gallic War,' iii. 22, in which he speaks of the "devoted" (devoti), whom the Aquitani called Soldurii. As the Aquitani bordered on the Pyrenees, it is not surprising that the like usage prevailed among them and the Iberians.]

[Footnote 147: The orthography is Perperna, as is proved by inscriptions. M. Perperna, the grandfather of this Perperna, was consul B.C. 130. (see Life of Tib. Gracchus, c. 20, Notes.) The son of M. Perperna also was consul B.C. 92: he did not die till B.C. 49, and consequently survived his son, this Perperna of Plutarch. Perperna Vento had been prætor. He associated himself with Lepidus after the death of Sulla, and was like M. Lepidus driven from Rome (Life of Sulla, c. 34, Notes).]

[Footnote 148: This is the Ebro, which the Romans called Iberus, the large river which flows in a south-east direction and enters the Mediterranean.

It seems that Plutarch here means the nations between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, or the modern Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia.]

[Footnote 149: The story is told by Frontinus, _Stratagemata_, i. 10, as Kaltwasser observes, and again, in iv. 7, in the very same words. It has been often remarked that Horatius probably alludes to this story (ii. _Epist._ I, 45).]

[Footnote 150: The Tagonius is either the Tagus (Tajo), or a branch of that large river, on the banks of which the Carpetani are placed by geographers, who also mark Caraca, a position on the Henares, a branch of the Tagus. If Caraca represents the country of the Charicatani, the Tagonius is the Nares or Henares, on which stood Complutum, the modern Alcalá de Henarea. But all this is merely conjecture.]

[Footnote 151: Lauron is placed near the coast, and near the outlet of the Sucro river, the modern Xucar. There was also a town Sucro near the mouth of the Sucro. Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 109) says that when the city was captured, a soldier attempted violence on a woman ([Greek: para phusin] παρὰ φύσιν), who tore out his eyes with her fingers. Sertorius, who knew that the whole cohort was addicted to infamous practices, put them all to death though they were Romans. Frontinus (_Stratagem._ ii. 5) has a long account of this affair at Lauron, for which he quotes Livius, who says that Pompeius lost ten thousand men and all his baggage.

Pompeius began his Spanish campaign B.C. 76.]

[Footnote 152: These names are very uncertain in Plutarch. Tuttia may be the Turia, now the Guadalaviar, the river of Valencia, the outlet of which is about twenty-five miles north of the outlet of the Sucro. Other readings are Duria and Dusia (see the notes of Sintenis). If these rivers are properly identified, this campaign was carried on in the plains of the kingdom of Valencia. Tutia is mentioned by Florus (iii. 22) as one of the Spanish towns which surrendered to Pompeius after the death of Sertorius and Perperna.

Kaltwasser refers to Frontinus, who speaks of one Hirtuleius, or Herculeius in some editions, as a general of Sertorius who was defeated by Metellus (_Stratagem_, ii. 1). In another passage (ii. 7) Frontinus states that Sertorius during a battle being informed by a native that Hirtuleius hod fallen, stabbed the man that he might not carry the news to others, and so dispirit his soldiers. Plutarch (Life of Pompeius c. 18) states that Pompeius defeated Herennius and Perperna near Valentia, and killed above ten thousand of their men. This is apparently the same battle that Plutarch is here speaking of.]

[Footnote 153: See the Life of Pompeius, c. 19; and Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 110), who states that the battle took place near the town of Suero (which would be the more correct translation of the text of Plutarch), and that the wing which Perperna commanded was defeated by Metellus.]

[Footnote 154: This L. Afranius is the man whom Cicero calls "Auli filius" (_Ad Attic,_ i. 16), by which he meant that he was of obscure origin. He was consul with Q. Metellus Celer B.C. 60. Afranius and Petreius commanded for Pompeius in Spain B.C. 49, but C. Julius Cæsar compelled them to surrender, and pardoned them on the condition that they should not again serve against him. Afranius broke his promise and again joined Pompeius. He was in the battle of Thapsus in Africa B.C. 46, and after the defeat he attempted to escape into Mauritania, but was caught and given up to Cæsar, and shortly afterwards put to death by the soldiers.]

[Footnote 155: Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 110) has the same story about the dear being found.]

[Footnote 156: Seguntum, or Saguntia, as it is written in Appian (i. 110). It is not certain what place is meant. Some critics would read "in the plains of the Saguntini," by which might be meant the neighbourhood of Saguntum, a town on the east coast between the mouths of the Ebro and the Xucar, which was taken by Hannibal in the second Punic War (Liv. 21, c. 15). The maps place a Segontia on the Tagonius, another on the Salo (Xalon), a branch of the Ebro, and a Saguntia in the country of the Vaccæi on the northern branch of the Douro. Pompeius in his letter to the Senate speaks of the capture of the camp of Sertorius near Sucro, his defeat on the Durius, and the capture of Valentia. If the Durius be the Douro, this Segontia may be one of the towns called Segontia in the north-west of Spain. But the Durius may be the Turia, the river of Valentia, and Segontia may be Saguntum. The fact of Pompeius wintering among the Vaccæi is perhaps in favour of a north-west Segontia; but still I think that Saguntum was the battle-field. This battle is mentioned by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 110), who says that Pompeius lost six thousand men, but that Metellus defeated Perperua, who lost about five thousand men.]

[Footnote 157: The Vaccæi occupied part of the country immediately north of the Durius (Douro); but the limits cannot be accurately defined.]

[Footnote 158: Compare the Life of Lucullus, c. 5, and the Life of Crassus, c. 11. The letter of Pompeius to the Senate is in the third book of the Fragments of the Roman History of Sallustius. The letter concludes with the following words, which Plutarch had apparently read: "Ego non rem familiarem modo, verum etiam fidem consumpsi. Reliqui vos estis, qui nisi subvenitis, invito et praedicente me, exercitus hinc et cum eo omne bellum Hispaniae in Italiam transgredientur."]

[Footnote 159: This appears to be the event which is described in the fragment of the Second Book of the History of Sallustius, which is preserved by Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, ii. 9, in the chapter "De Luxu."]

[Footnote 160: Compare the Life of Sulla, c. 11.]

[Footnote 161: See the Life of Sulla, c. 24.]

[Footnote 162: Kaltwasser quotes Reiske, who observes that Plutarch, who wrote under the Empire, expresses himself after the fashion of his age, when the Roman Cæsars lived on the Palatine.]

[Footnote 163: The treaty with Mithridates was made B.C. 75. This Marius is mentioned in the Life of Lucullus, c. 8. Appian (_Mithridatic War_, c. 68) calls him Marcus Varius, and also states that Sertorius agreed to give Mithridates, Asia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia. In the matter of Asia the narratives of Plutarch and Appian are directly opposed to one another.]

[Footnote 164: This may be literally rendered "Marcus Marius together with whom Mithridates having captured some of the Asiatic cities;" Kaltwasser renders it, "in connection with him (Marcus Marius) Mithrdates conquered some towns in Asia." But the context shows that Marcus Marius was to be considered the principal, and that the towns were not conquered in order to be given to Mithridates.]

[Footnote 165: Compare the Life of Lucullus, c. 20.]

[Footnote 166: Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 112) does not mention this massacre of the Iberian boys; but he states that Sertorius had become odious to the Romans whom he now distrusted, and that he employed Iberians instead of the Romans as his body-guard. He also adds that the character of Sertorius was changed, that he gave himself up to wine and women, and was continually sustaining defeats. These circumstances and fear for his own life, according to Appian, led Perperna to conspire against Sertorius (i. 113).]

[Footnote 167: Perhaps Octavius Gracimus, as the name appears in Frontinus (_Stratagem._ ii. 5, 31).]

[Footnote 168: [Greek: tê bradutêti tês lalias.] τῆ βραδυτῆτι τῆς λαλιᾶς The meaning of these words may be doubtful; but what I have given is perhaps consistent with the Greek and with the circumstances. There was some hesitation about beginning the attack, and the flagging of the conversation was a natural consequence.

Sertorius was murdered B.C. 72, in the consulship of L. Gellius Publicola and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, in the eighth year of his command in Spain. (Livius, _Epitom._ 96.) Accordingly this places the commencement of his command in B.C. 80; but he went to Spain in B.C. 82, or at the end of B.C. 83. See Notes on c. 6. Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 114) states that when the will of Sertorius was opened it was discovered that he had placed Perperna among his heredes, a circumstance which throws doubt on the assertion of Appian that Perperna was afraid that Sertorius intended to take his life. Appian adds that when this was known, it created great enmity against Perperna among his followers.

Plutarch's estimate of Sertorius may be a favourable one; yet he does not omit to mention that act of his life which was most blamable, the massacre of the youths at Osca. From the slight indications in Frontinus, who found some material for his work on Military Stratagems in the campaigns of Sertorius, and from other passages, we may collect that, however mild the temper of Sertorius was, circumstances must often have compelled him to acts of severity and even cruelty. The difficulties of his position can only be estimated when we reflect on the nature of a campaign in many parts of Spain and the kind of soldiers he had under him. Promptitude and decision were among his characteristics; and in such a warfare promptitude and decision cannot be exercised at the time when alone they are of any use, if a man is swayed by any other considerations than those of prudence and necessity in the hour of danger. A general who could stab one of his own men in the heat of battle, to prevent him dispiriting the army by news of a loss, proved that his judgment was as clear as his determination was resolved.

Plutarch's narrative is of no value as a campaign, and his apology must be that he was not writing a campaign, but delineating a man's character. Drumann _Geschichte Roms_, Pompeius, p. 350, &c.) has attempted to give a connected history of this campaign against Sertorius, and he has probably done it as well as it can be done with such materials as we possess. The map of Antient Spain and Portugal published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, will be useful for reading the sketch in Drumann. Plutarch had no good map, and, as already observed, he was not writing a campaign. Some modern historical writers, who have maps, seem to have made very little use of them; and their narrative of military transactions is often us confused as Plutarch's.

The nature of Guerilla warfare in Spain may be learned from the history of the Peninsular War. The difficulties of a campaign in Navarre and the Basque provinces are well shown in the campaigns of Zumalacarregui, the Carlist chief, a modern Sertorius, whose extraordinary career was cut short by a chance ball before the walls of Bilbao, in 1835. (Henningsen, _The most striking Events of a Twelve-month's Campaign with Zumalacarregui_, London, 1836.)]

[Footnote 169: Metellus marched to another part of Spain, and left Pompeius to deal with Perperna. According to Appian's narrative the decisive action between Pompeius and Perperna took place "on the tenth day," probably the tenth from the death of Sertorius. Pompeius would not see Perperna after he was taken, and prudently put him to death. "The death of Sertorius," says Appian, "was the end of the Spanish war, and it is probable that if Sertorius had lived, it would not have been terminated so soon, or so easily."]

LIFE OF EUMENES.