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SERTORIUS, QUINTUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 684 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SERTORIUS, See also:QUINTUS , See also:Roman statesman and See also:general, was a native of Nursia in See also:Sabine territory. After acquiring some reputation in See also:Rome as a jurist and orator, he entered upon a military career. He served under See also:Marius in rot B.C. at the See also:great See also:battle of See also:Aquae Sextiae (mod. See also:Aix) in which the Teutones were decisively defeated. In 97 he was serving in See also:Spain. In 91 he was See also:quaestor in Cisalpine See also:Gaul, and on his return to Rome he would have been elected to the tribuneship but for the decided opposition of See also:Sulla. He now declared for Marius and the democratic party, though of Marius himself as a See also:man he had the worst See also:opinion. He must have been a consenting party to the hideous massacres of Marius and See also:Cinna in 87, though he seems to have done what he could to mitigate their horrors. On Sulla's return from the See also:East in 83, Sertorius went to Spain, where he represented the Marian or democratic party, but without receiving any definite See also:commission or See also:appointment. Having been obliged to withdraw to See also:Africa in consequence of the advance of the forces of Sulla over the See also:Pyrenees, he carried on a See also:campaign in See also:Mauretania, in which he defeated one of Sulla's generals and captured Tingis (See also:Tangier). This success recommended him to the See also:people of Spain, more particularly to the Lusitanian tribes in the See also:west, whom Roman generals and See also:governors of Sulla's party had plundered and oppressed. Brave and kindly, and gifted with a rough telling eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress them favourably, and the native See also:militia, which he organized, spoke of him as the " new See also:Hannibal." Many Roman refugees and deserters joined him, and with these and his See also:Spanish See also:volunteers he completely defeated one of Sulla's generals and drove Q.

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Caecilius See also:Metellus See also:Pius, who had been specially sent against him from Rome, out of Lusitania, or Further Spain as the See also:Romans called it. Sertorius owed much of his success to his statesmanlike ability. His See also:object was to build up a See also:stable See also:government in the See also:country with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he 'wished to civilize after the Roman See also:model. He established a See also:senate of 300 members, See also:drawn from Roman emigrants, with probably a sprinkling of the best Spaniards, and surrounded himself with a Spanish bodyguard. For the See also:children of the See also:chief native families he provided a school at Osca (See also:Huesca), where they received a Roman See also:education and even adopted the See also:dress of Roman youths. Strict and severe as he was with his soldiers, he was particularly considerate to the people generally, and made their burdens as See also:light as possible. It seems clear that he had a See also:peculiar See also:gift for evoking the See also:enthusiasm of See also:rude tribes, and we can well understand how the famous See also:white fawn, a See also:present from one of the natives, which was his See also:constant See also:companion and was supposed to communicate to him the See also:advice of the goddess See also:Diana, promoted his popularity. For six years he may be said to have really ruled Spain. In 77 he was joined by M. Perperna (or Perpenna) Vento from Rome, with a following of Roman nobles, and in the same See also:year the great See also:Pompey (q.v.) was sent to conquer him. Sertorius proved himself more than a match for his adversaries, utterly defeating their See also:united forces on one occasion near See also:Saguntum. Pompey wrote to Rome for reinforcements, without which, he said, he and Metellus would be driven out of Spain.

Sertorius was in See also:

league with the pirates in the Mediterranean, was negotiating with the formidable See also:Mithradates, and was in communication with the insurgent slaves in See also:Italy. But owing to jealousies among the Roman See also:officers who served under him and the Spaniards of higher See also:rank he could not maintain his position, and his See also:influence over the native tribes slipped away from him, though he won victories to the last. In 72 he was assassinated at a banquet, Perperna, it seems, being the chief instigator of the See also:deed. See See also:Plutarch's lives of Sertorius and Pompey; See also:Appian, See also:Bell. civ. and Hispanica; the fragments of See also:Sallust; Dio See also:Cassius See also:xxxvi. 25, 27, 28, xliv. 47; See also:Veil. Pat. ii. 25, 29, 30, 90.

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