He also resorted to such tricks as these: whenever he
had got secret information that the enemy had invaded any part of the
country, or were attempting to draw any city away from him, he would
pretend that the deer had spoken to him in his sleep, and bid him keep
his troops in readiness; and, on the other hand, when he heard that
his generals had got a victory, he would keep the messenger concealed,
and bring forward the deer crowned with chaplets, as is usual on the
occasion of good news, and tell his men to rejoice and sacrifice to
the gods, as they would hear of some good luck.
XII. By these means he tamed the people, and had them more manageable
for all purposes, as they believed they were led, not by the counsels
of a foreigner, but by a deity, and facts also confirmed them in this
opinion, inasmuch as the power of Sertorius increased beyond all
expectation; for with the two thousand six hundred men whom he called
Romans, and four thousand Lusitanian targetiers, and seven hundred
horsemen, whom he joined to a motley band of seven hundred Libyans,
who crossed over with him to Lusitania, he fought with four Roman
generals, who had under them one hundred and twenty thousand foot
soldiers, six thousand horsemen, two thousand bowmen and slingers, and
cities innumerable, while he had only twenty cities in all under him.
But though so feeble and insignificant at first, he not only subdued
great nations, and took many cities, but of the generals who were
opposed to him he defeated Cotta[132] in a naval engagement in the
channel near Mellaria;[133] he put to flight Fufidius,[134] the
governor of Baetica, on the banks of the Baetis, with the slaughter of
two thousand of his Roman soldiers; Lucius Domitius,[135] proconsul of
the other Iberia,[136] was defeated by his quaestor; Thoranius,
another of the commanders of Metellus, who was sent with a force, he
destroyed; and on Metellus[137] himself, the greatest man among the
Romans in his day, and of the highest repute, he inflicted several
discomfitures, and brought him to such straits, that Lucius
Manlius[138] came from Narbo,[139] in Gaul, to his relief, and
Pompeius Magnus[140] was hastily despatched from Rome with an army;
for Metellus was perplexed at having to deal with a daring man, who
evaded all fighting in the open field, and could adapt himself to any
circumstances by reason of the light and easy equipment and activity
of his Iberian army; he who had been disciplined in regular battles
fought by men in full armour and commanded a heavy immovable mass of
men, who were excellently trained to thrust against their enemies,
when they came to close quarters, and to strike them down, but unable
to traverse mountains, to be kept always on the alert by the continual
pursuing and retreating of light active men, and to endure hunger like
them, and to live under the open sky without fire or tent.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167