Putting on a Celtic dress, and
making himself master of the most ordinary expressions of the
language, for the purpose of conversation when occasion might offer,
he mingled with the barbarians, and, either by his own eyes or by
inquiry, learning all that was important to know, he returned to
Marius. For this he obtained the prize of merit; and in the rest of
the campaign, having given many proofs of his judgment and daring, he
was honoured and trusted by his general. After the close of the war
with the Cimbri and Teutones, he was sent as tribune by Didius[110]
the praetor to Iberia, and he wintered in Castlo,[111] a city of the
Celtiberi. The soldiers, being in the midst of abundance, lost all
discipline, and were generally drunk, which brought them into contempt
with the barbarians, who, by night, sent for aid from their neighbours
the Gyrisoeni, and, coming on the soldiers in their lodgings, began to
slaughter them. Sertorius with a few others stole out, and, collecting
the soldiers who made their escape, surrounded the city. Finding the
gates open through which the barbarians had secretly entered, he did
not make the same mistake that they did, but he set a watch there,
and, hemming in the city on all sides, he massacred every man who was
of age to bear arms. When the massacre was over, he ordered all his
soldiers to lay down their own armour and dress, and, putting on those
of the barbarians, to follow him to the city from which the men came
who had fallen on them in the night.
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