Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
taking his seat, proceeded to answer the petitions of those who
applied themselves to him. The keepers of the hind, who were
not far off, now let her loose, and she no sooner espied
Sertorius, but she came leaping with great joy to his feet,
laid her head upon his knees, and licked his hands, as she
formerly used to do. And Sertorius stroking her, and making
much of her again, with that tenderness that the tears stood in
his eyes, all that were present were immediately filled with
wonder and astonishment, and accompanying him to his house with
loud shouts for joy, looked upon him as a person above the rank
of mortal men, and highly beloved by the gods; and were in
great courage and hope for the future.
When he had reduced his enemies to the last extremity for want
of provision, he was forced to give them battle, in the plains
near Saguntum, to hinder them from foraying, and plundering the
country. Both parties fought gloriously. Memmius, the best
commander in Pompey's army, was slain in the heat of the
battle. Sertorius over threw all before him, and with great
slaughter of his enemies pressed forward towards Metellus.
This old commander, making a resistance beyond what could be
expected from one of his years, was wounded with a lance; an
occurrence which filled all who either saw it or heard of it,
with shame, to be thought to have left their general in
distress, but at the same time it provoked them to revenge and
fury against their enemies; they covered Metellus with their
shields, and brought him off in safety, and then valiantly
repulsed the Spaniards; and so victory changed sides, and
Sertorius, that he might afford a more secure retreat to his
army, and that fresh forces might more easily be raised,
retired into a strong city in the mountains. And though it was
the least of his intention to sustain a long siege, yet he
began to repair the walls, and to fortify the gates, thus
deluding his enemies, who came and sat down before the town,
hoping to take it without much resistance; and meantime gave
over the pursuit of the Spaniards, and allowed opportunity for
raising new forces for Sertorius, to which purpose he had sent
commanders to all their cities, with orders, when they had
sufficiently increased their numbers, to send him word of it.
This news he no sooner received, but he sallied out and forced
his way through his enemies, and easily joined them with the
rest of his army. And having received this considerable
reinforcement, he set upon the Romans again, and by rapidly
assaulting them, by alarming them on all sides, by ensnaring,
circumventing, and laying ambushes for them, he cut off all
provisions by land, while with his piratical vessels, he kept
all the coast in awe, and hindered their supplies by sea. He
thus forced the Roman generals to dislodge, and to separate
from one another: Metellus departed into Gaul, and Pompey
wintered among the Vaccaeans, in a wretched condition, where,
being in extreme want of money, he wrote a letter to the
senate, to let them know that if they did not speedily supply
him, he must draw off his army; for he had already spent his
own money in the defense of Italy. To these extremities, the
chiefest and the most powerful commanders of the age were
reduced by the skill of Sertorius; and it was the common
opinion in Rome, that he would be in Italy before Pompey.
How far Metellus was terrified, and at what rate he esteemed
him, he plainly declared, when he offered by proclamation a
hundred talents, and twenty thousand acres of land, to any
Roman that should kill him, and leave, if he were banished, to
return; attempting villainously to buy his life by treachery,
when he despaired of ever being able to overcome him in open
war. And when once he gained the advantage in a battle against
Sertorius, he was so pleased and transported with his good
fortune, that he caused himself to be publicly proclaimed
imperator; and all the cities which he visited received him
with altars and sacrifices; he allowed himself, it is said, to
have garlands placed on his head, and accepted sumptuous
entertainments, at which he sat drinking in triumphal robes,
while images and figures of victory were introduced by the
motion of machines, bringing in with them crowns and trophies
of gold to present to him, and companies of young men and women
danced before him, and sang to him songs of joy and triumph.
By all which he rendered himself deservedly ridiculous, for
being so excessively delighted and puffed up with the thoughts
of having followed one who was retiring of his own accord, and
for having once had the better of him whom he used to call
Sylla's runaway slave, and his forces, the remnant of the
defeated troops of Carbo.
Sertorius, meantime, showed the loftiness of his temper in
calling together all the Roman senators who had fled from Rome,
and had come and resided with him, and giving them the name of
a senate; and out of these he chose praetors and quaestors, and
adorned his government with all the Roman laws and
institutions. And though he made use of the arms, riches, and
cities of the Spaniards, yet he would never, even in word,
remit to them the imperial authority, but set Roman officers
and commanders over them, intimating his purpose to restore
liberty to the Romans, not to raise up the Spaniard's power
against them. For he was a sincere lover of his country, and
had a great desire to return home; but in his adverse fortune
he showed undaunted courage, and behaved himself towards his
enemies in a manner free from all dejection and
mean-spiritedness; and when he was in his prosperity, and in
the height of his victories, he sent word to Metellus and
Pompey, that he was ready to lay down his arms, and live a
private life, if he were allowed to return home, declaring that
he had rather live as the meanest citizen in Rome, than, exiled
from it, be supreme commander of all other cities together.
And it is thought that his great desire for his country was in
no small measure promoted by the tenderness he had for his
mother, under whom he was brought up after the death of his
father, and upon whom he had placed his entire affection. And
after that his friends had sent for him into Spain to be their
general, as soon as he heard of his mother's death, he had
almost cast away himself and died for grief; for he lay seven
days together continually in his tent, without giving the word,
or being seen by the nearest of his friends; and when the chief
commanders of the army, and persons of the greatest note came
about his tent, with great difficulty they prevailed with him
at last to come abroad, and speak to his soldiers, and to take
upon him the management of affairs, which were in a prosperous
condition. And thus, to many men's judgment, he seemed to have
been in himself of a mild and compassionate temper, and
naturally given to ease and quietness, and to have accepted of
the command of military forces contrary to his own inclination,
and not being able to live in safety otherwise, to have been
driven by his enemies to have recourse to arms, and to espouse
the wars as a necessary guard for the defense of his person.
His negotiations with king Mithridates further argue the
greatness of his mind. For when Mithridates, recovering
himself from his overthrow by Sylla, like a strong wrestler
that gets up to try another fall, was again endeavoring to
reestablish his power in Asia, at this time the great fame of
Sertorius was celebrated in all places and when the merchants
who came out of the western parts of Europe, bringing these, as
it were, among their other foreign wares, had filled the
kingdom of Pontus with their stories of his exploits in war,
Mithridates was extremely desirous to send an embassy to him,
being also highly encouraged to it by the boastings of his
flattering courtiers, who, comparing Mithridates to Pyrrhus,
and Sertorius to Hannibal, professed that the Romans would
never be able to make any considerable resistance against such
great forces, and such admirable commanders, when they should
be set upon on both sides at once, on one by the most warlike
general, and on the other by the most powerful prince in
existence.
Accordingly, Mithridates sends ambassadors into Spain to
Sertorius with letters and instructions, and commission to
promise ships and money towards the charge of the war, if
Sertorius would confirm his pretensions upon Asia, and
authorize him to possess all that he had surrendered to the
Romans in his treaty with Sylla. Sertorius summoned a full
council which he called a senate, where, when others joyfully
approved of the conditions, and were desirous immediately to
accept of his offer, seeing that he desired nothing of them but
a name, and an empty title to places not in their power to
dispose of, in recompense of which they should be supplied with
what they then stood most in need of, Sertorius would by no
means agree to it; declaring that he was willing that king
Mithridates should exercise all royal power and authority over
Bithynia and Cappadocia, countries accustomed to a monarchical
government, and not belonging to Rome, but he could never
consent that he should seize or detain a province, which, by
the justest right and title, was possessed by the Romans, which
Mithridates had formerly taken away from them, and had
afterwards lost in open war to Fimbria, and quitted upon a
treaty of peace with Sylla. For he looked upon it as his duty
to enlarge the Roman possessions by his conquering arms, and
not to increase his own power by the diminution of the Roman
territories. Since a noble-minded man, though he willingly
accepts of victory when it comes with honor, will never so much
as endeavor to save his own life upon any dishonorable terms.
When this was related to Mithridates, he was struck with
amazement, and said to his intimate friends, "What will
Sertorius enjoin us to do when he comes to be seated in the
Palatium in Rome, who at present, when he is driven out to the
borders of the Atlantic sea, sets bounds to our kingdoms in the
east, and threatens us with war, if we attempt the recovery of
Asia?" However, they solemnly, upon oath, concluded a league
between them, upon these terms: that Mithridates should enjoy
the free possession of Cappadocia and Bithynia, and that
Sertorius should send him soldiers, and a general for his army,
in recompense of which the king was to supply him with three
thousand talents and forty ships. Marcus Marius, a Roman
senator who had quitted Rome to follow Sertorius, was sent
general into Asia, in company with whom when Mithridates had
reduced divers of the Asian cities, Marius made his entrance
with rods and axes carried before him, and Mithridates followed
in the second place, voluntarily waiting upon him. Some of
these cities he set at liberty, and others he freed from taxes,
signifying to them that these privileges were granted to them
by the favor of Sertorius, and hereby Asia, which had been
miserably tormented by the revenue-farmers, and oppressed by
the insolent pride and covetousness of the soldiers, began to
rise again to new hopes, and to look forward with joy to the
expected change of government.
But in Spain, the senators about Sertorius, and others of the
nobility, finding themselves strong enough for their enemies,
no sooner laid aside fear, but their minds were possessed by
envy and irrational jealousies of Sertorius's power. And
chiefly Perpenna, elevated by the thoughts of his noble birth,
and carried away with a fond ambition of commanding the army,
threw out villainous discourses in private amongst his
acquaintance. "What evil genius," he would say, "hurries us
perpetually from worse to worse? We who disdained to obey the