Quintus Sertorius

Lore & Background

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 c. 88 BC, 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.

Reader's Guide

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. 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. 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. 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. He almost certainly fought with his commander at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BC and the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BC. Sertorius eventually travelled to Hispania Citerior to serve its governor, Titus Didius, as military tribune in 97 BC. 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 com

Did You Know?

• Sertorius used his tamed white fawn to claim he had divine favour.
• The Greek biographer Plutarch paired Sertorius with Eumenes of Cardia in his Parallel Lives.
• Sertorius' mother Rhea focused all her energies on raising him after his father died.
• Sertorius lost the use of one of his eyes from a wound sustained in the Social War.