The History of Rome, vol 5 | Page 9

who from
motives more than ambiguous deserted to the camp of the democracy.
Once a zealous Optimate, and a large purchaser at the auctions of the
proscribed estates, he had, as governor of Sicily, so scandalously
plundered the province that he was threatened with impeachment, and,
to evade it, threw himself into opposition. It was a gain of doubtful
value. No doubt the opposition thus acquired a well-known name, a
man of quality, a vehement orator in the Forum; but Lepidus was an
insignificant and indiscreet personage, who did not deserve to stand at
the head either in council or in the field. Nevertheless the opposition
welcomed him, and the new leader of the democrats succeeded not only
in deterring his accusers from prosecuting the attack on him which they
had begun, but also in carrying his election to the consulship for 676; in
which, we may add, he was helped not only by the treasures exacted in
Sicily, but also by the foolish endeavour of Pompeius to show Sulla

and the pure Sullans on this occasion what he could do. Now that the
opposition had, on the death of Sulla, found a head once more in
Lepidus, and now that this their leader had become the supreme
magistrate of the state, the speedy outbreak of a new revolution in the
capital might with certainty be foreseen.
The Emigrants in Spain Sertorius
But even before the democrats moved in the capital, the democratic
emigrants had again bestirred themselves in Spain. The soul of this
movement was Quintus Sertorius. This excellent man, a native of
Nursia in the Sabine land, was from the first of a tender and even soft
organization--as his almost enthusiastic love for his mother, Raia,
shows--and at the same time of the most chivalrous bravery, as was
proved by the honourable scars which he brought home from the
Cimbrian, Spanish, and Italian wars. Although wholly untrained as an
orator, he excited the admiration of learned advocates by the natural
flow and the striking self-possession of his address. His remarkable
military and statesmanly talent had found opportunity of shining by
contrast, more particularly in the revolutionary war which the
democrats so wretchedly and stupidly mismanaged; he was confessedly
the only democratic officer who knew how to prepare and to conduct
war, and the only democratic statesman who opposed the insensate and
furious doings of his party with statesmanlike energy. His Spanish
soldiers called him the new Hannibal, and not merely because he had,
like that hero, lost an eye in war. He in reality reminds us of the great
Phoenician by his equally cunning and courageous strategy, by his rare
talent of organizing war by means of war, by his adroitness in attracting
foreign nations to his interest and making them serviceable to his ends,
by his prudence in success and misfortune, by the quickness of his
ingenuity in turning to good account his victories and averting the
consequences of his defeats. It may be doubted whether any Roman
statesman of the earlier period, or of the present, can be compared in
point of versatile talent to Sertorius. After Sulla's generals had
compelled him to quit Spain,(15) he had led a restless life of adventure
along the Spanish and African coasts, sometimes in league, sometimes
at war, with the Cilician pirates who haunted these seas, and with the

chieftains of the roving tribes of Libya. The victorious Roman
restoration had pursued him even thither: when he was besieging Tingis
(Tangiers), a corps under Pacciaecus from Roman Africa had come to
the help of the prince of the town; but Pacciaecus was totally defeated,
and Tingis was taken by Sertorius. On the report of such achievements
by the Roman refugee spreading abroad, the Lusitanians, who,
notwithstanding their pretended submission to the Roman supremacy,
practically maintained their independence, and annually fought with the
governors of Further Spain, sent envoys to Sertorius in Africa, to invite
him to join them, and to commit to him the command of their militia.
Renewed Outbreak of the Spanish Insurrection Metellus Sent to Spain
Sertorius, who twenty years before had served under Titus Didius in
Spain and knew the resources of the land, resolved to comply with the
invitation, and, leaving behind a small detachment on the Mauretanian
coast, embarked for Spain (about 674). The straits separating Spain and
Africa were occupied by a Roman squadron commanded by Cotta; to
steal through it was impossible; so Sertorius fought his way through
and succeeded in reaching the Lusitanians. There were not more than
twenty Lusitanian communities that placed themselves under his orders;
and even of "Romans" he mustered only 2600 men, a considerable part
of whom were deserters from the army of Pacciaecus or Africans armed
after the Roman style. Sertorius saw that everything depended on his
associating