However, when
he was a candidate for the tribuneship, Sulla raised a party against
him, and he failed; and this was, apparently, the reason why he hated
Sulla. But when Marius was overpowered by Sulla and fled from Rome,
and Sulla had set out to fight with Mithridates, and the consul
Octavius adhered to the party of Sulla, while his colleague Cinna, who
aimed at a revolution, revived the drooping faction of Marius,
Sertorius attached himself to Cinna, especially as he saw that
Octavius was deficient in activity, and he distrusted the friends of
Marius. A great battle was fought in the Forum between the consuls, in
which Octavius got the victory, and Cinna and Sertorius took to
flight, having lost nearly ten thousand men. However, they persuaded
most of the troops, which were still scattered about Italy, to come
over to their side, and they were soon a match for Octavius.
V. When Marius had returned from Libya, and was proposing to join
Cinna, himself in a mere private capacity and Cinna as consul, all the
rest thought it politic to receive him; but Sertorius was against it:
whether it was because he thought that Cinna would pay less respect to
him when a general of higher reputation was present, or because he
feared the ferocious temper of Marius, and that he would put all in
confusion in his passion, which knew no bounds, transgressing the
limits of justice in the midst of victory.
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