VII. Hearing that Sulla was master of Rome,[116] and that the party of
Marius and Carbo was on the wane, and being in immediate expectation
of an army coming to fight against him under some commander, he sent
Julius Salinator to occupy the passes of the Pyrenees, with six
thousand heavy armed soldiers. Shortly after this, Caius Annius[117]
was sent from Rome by Sulla; but, seeing that the position of Julius
could not be attacked, he was perplexed, and seated himself at the
base of the mountains. But one Calpurnius, named Lanarius,
assassinated Julius, on which the soldiers left the summits of the
Pyrenees, and Annius, crossing the mountains, advanced with a large
force and drove all before him. Sertorius, being unable to oppose him,
fled with three thousand men to New Carthage,[118] and there embarking
and crossing the sea, landed in Mauritania, in Libya. His soldiers,
while getting water without due precautions, were fallen upon by the
barbarians, and many of them were killed, upon which Sertorius sailed
again for Iberia. He was, however, driven off the coast, and, being
joined by some Cilician piratical vessels,[119] he attacked the
island of Pityussa,[120] and landing there drove out the garrison of
Annius. Annius soon arrived with a large fleet and five thousand heavy
armed men, and Sertorius ventured on a naval battle with him, though
his vessels were light and built for quick sailing and not for
fighting; but the sea was disturbed by a strong west wind, which drove
most of the vessels of Sertorius upon the reefs, owing to their
lightness, and Sertorius, with a few ships, could not get out to sea
by reason of the wind, nor land on account of the enemy, and being
tossed about for ten days, with the wind and a violent sea against
him, he held out with great difficulty.
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