Background
In 88 BC Lucius Cornelius Sulla marched his legions on Rome, starting a period of civil wars. Quintus Sertorius, a client of Gaius Marius, joined his patron's faction and took up the sword against the Sullan faction (mainly optimates). After the death of Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gaius Marius, Sertorius lost faith with his faction's leadership. In 82 BC, during the war against Sulla, he left Italy for his assigned province in Hispania. [7] Unfortunately his faction, the Marians, lost the war in Italy right after his departure and in 81 BC Sulla sent Gaius Annius Luscus with several legions to take the Iberian provinces from Sertorius. [8] After a brief resistance Sertorius and his men are expelled from Hispania. They ended up in Mauretania in north-western Africa where they conquered the city of Tingis. Here the Lusitanians, a fierce Iberian tribe who were about to be invaded by a Sullan governor, approached him. They requested Sertorius to become their war leader in the fight against the Sullans. Sertorius accepted the request and so well into 80 BC Sertorius landed at the little fishing town of Baelo near the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) and returned to Hispania. [9] Soon after his landing he fought and defeated the Sullan general Lucius Fufidius (the aforementioned Sullan governor) at the Baetis river. After the Baetis victory he defeated several Sullan armies and drove his opponents from Hispania.
Threatened by Sertorius' success the Senate in Rome upgraded Hispania Ulterior to a proconsular province and sent the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius with a large army to fight him. [10] Sertorius used guerrilla tactics so effectively he wore down Metellus to the point of exhaustion while Sertorius' legate Lucius Hirtuleius defeated the governor of Hispania Citerior Marcus Domitius Calvinus. In 76 BC the government in Rome decided to send Pompey and an even larger army to help Metellus. [11] In the same year Sertorius is joined by Marcus Perpenna, who brought him the remnants of the army of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the rebel consul of 78 BC. [12] Thus reinforced Sertorius decided to try and take the Iberian east coast (because the cities there supported his enemies). His first target was the city of Lauron. [13]
Prelude
Lauron was strategically located between Pompey's legions and those of his colleague Metellus. Sertorius wanted to prevent Pompey from linking up with Metellus and also punish Lauron for siding with his opponents. Pompey wanted to finish off Sertorius quickly and take credit for finishing the war in Hispania so both men marched for Lauron. [14] Sertorius arrived first, and began to lay siege to the city. Pompey had a veteran army (recruited from among Sulla's veterans) of 30,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry [4] and was very confident of victory. When he arrived he built his camp close to that of Sertorius to force Sertorius into battle. [15]
Pompey, was delighted with the way things had turned out, for he now positioned his army so that Sertorius was, as he believed, caught between the city and the army. So Pompey sent a messenger to the people of Lauron. He invited them to celebrate, and take their seats along the city wall to see how Sertorius enjoyed being besieged. Sertorius was told of this, and found it highly amusing. Sulla's pupil (as he jokingly liked to refer to Pompey) was due another lesson – this time from Sertorius himself. [16]
Sertorius responded by sending out his light troops and cavalry to harass Pompey's foragers. He ordered his men to concentrate on the forage parties in the nearby areas but to leave the Pompeians in the more distant tracts. Eventually, tired of the continual raids, the Pompeians moved their foraging operations to the more remote areas. This was what Sertorius had been waiting for. During the night he ordered ten cohorts of heavily armed troops and ten cohorts of light troops under the command of Octavius Gracinus, along with Tarquitius Priscus and two thousand cavalry to move out of his camp and lay an ambush against the foragers. [5]
Battle
Pompey's foragers had also been out overnight, and were well loaded with supplies. When they were heading back to camp they were suddenly attacked by the lightly-armed Iberians. The Pompeians tried to form battle lines but before they could do so, the Sertorian heavy infantry charged them from the woods. The charge broke the Roman battle line and routed the entire foraging party, which ran for the safety of Pompey's camp. At this point the Sertorian cavalry was unleashed and started riding down the fleeing Pompeians, turning the rout into a massacre. Furthermore a squadron of 250 cavalry had set out for Pompey's camp the moment the opening attack started and were now working their way back, killing every Pompeian they encountered. [17]
When Pompey became aware of his foragers' predicament, he sent one of his legates, Decimus Laelius, with his legion to cover his men's retreat. The advancing legion encountered the Sertorian cavalry and forced them back to the right flank where they fell out of sight. They then encountered the Sertorian infantry. While they were forming up to engage the infantry, they were hit in the rear by the Sertorian cavalry, who had circled around. As the legion recoiled from the shock of this unexpected attack they were attacked from the front by the Sertorian infantry. Like the foragers before them, they broke and fled, and the massacre continued. [17]
By that time Pompey was leading out his entire army and forming them up to come to his men's rescue. As he was preparing to march, Sertorius led out his remaining troops and drew up for battle. Pompey now had a dilemma on his hands. If he marched to rescue his men, Sertorius could hit his rear or flank, with disastrous results. If, on the other hand, he would advance on Sertorius then his retreating force would probably be destroyed and he still would have to fight an uphill battle, this seriously increased the odds of Pompey's army suffering a crippling defeat. [17]
Pompey's only logical course of action was to stay put and he did. He was forced to become a bystander while his men were cut down before his eyes. The Pompeian army lost ten thousand men. [18] With morale very low, Pompey's army was confined to camp while Sertorius burned down Lauron. It was only the arrival of Metellus and his army who prevented Sertorius from finishing off Pompey. Not willing to be caught between two Republican armies, Sertorius had to withdraw. [19]
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from republic to empire. Early in his career, he was a partisan and protégé of the Roman general and dictator Sulla; later, he became the political ally, and finally the enemy, of Julius Caesar.
This article concerns the period 79 BC – 70 BC.
Year 75 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Octavius and Cotta. The denomination 75 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Lucius Afranius was an ancient Roman plebeian and a client of Pompey the Great. He served Pompey as a legate during his Iberian campaigns, his eastern campaigns and remained in his service right through to the Civil War. He died in Africa right after the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC.
Quintus Sertorius was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian Peninsula. Sertorius became the independent ruler of Hispania for most of a decade until his assassination.
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a Roman statesman and general. After the death of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, he joined or instigated a rebellion against the Sullan regime, demanding a consecutive term as consul late in his year and, when refused, marching on Rome. Lepidus' forces were defeated in a battle near the Milvian Bridge and he fled to Sardinia. He was the father of the triumvir Lepidus and of the Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus who was consul in 50 BC.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic. His father Metellus Numidicus was banished from Rome through the machinations of Gaius Marius. He, because of his constant and unbending attempts to have his father officially recalled from exile, was given the agnomen (nickname) Pius.
The Battle of the Baetis River was fought between an army of the Roman Republic and a rebel army at the Baetis river in Spain. The battle took place in 80 BC at the start of the Sertorian War. The Romans were led by Lucius Fufidius, while the rebels were led by the Roman rebel Quintus Sertorius. The rebel army was victorious, gaining Sertorius control over Hispania Ulterior.
Marcus PerpernaVeiento was a Roman aristocrat, statesman and general. He fought in Sulla's civil war, Lepidus' failed rebellion of 77 BC and from 76 to 72 BC in the Sertorian War. He conspired against and assassinated Quintus Sertorius, and was defeated and executed by Pompey the Great.
The Sertorian War was a civil war in the Roman Republic fought from 80 to 72 BC between two Roman factions, one led by Quintus Sertorius and another led by the senate as constituted in the aftermath of Sulla's civil war. The war was fought on the Iberian peninsula and was one of the Roman civil wars of the first century BC. The Sertorians comprised many Roman exiles from the Sullan proscriptions led by Sertorius, who fashioned himself proconsul, and native Celts, Aquitanians, and Iberians.
Sulla's civil war was fought between the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla and his opponents, the Cinna-Marius faction, in the years 83–82 BC. The war ended with a decisive battle just outside Rome itself. After the war the victorious Sulla made himself dictator of the Roman Republic.
Marcus Domitius Calvinus was an ancient Roman politician and military commander who was killed during the early stages of the Sertorian War.
Lucius Hirtuleius was a legate of Quintus Sertorius during the Sertorian War, in which he fought from 80 BC until his death in 75 BC. After the death of Julius Salinator, he was considered Sertorius's most trusted lieutenant, his second-in-command, and was often given independent commands. During the war he defeated the Roman governors Marcus Domitius Calvinus and Lucius Manlius.
The Battle of Sucro was fought in 75 BC between a rebel army under the command of the Roman rebel Quintus Sertorius and a Roman army under the command of the Roman general Pompey. The battle was fought on the banks of the river Sucro near a town bearing the same name. It ended indecisively: with Sertorius winning a tactical victory but having to withdraw because Pompey's colleague Metellus and his army were approaching.
The Battle of Saguntum was fought in 75 BC between forces of the Roman Republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and an army of Sertorian rebels under the command of Quintus Sertorius. The location of the battle is disputed, but it was most likely near modern Langa de Duero, as Sallust informs us the battle was fought on the banks of the river Douro. The battle lasted from noon till night and ended in a draw.
The Battle of Italica was fought in 75 BC between a rebel army under the command of Lucius Hirtuleius a legate of the Roman rebel Quintus Sertorius and a Roman Republican army under the command of the Roman general and proconsul of Hispania Ulterior Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius. The battle was fought near Italica and ended in a stunning victory for the Metellan army.
The Battle of Valentia was fought in 75 BC between a rebel army under the command of Marcus Perpenna Vento and a general called Gaius Herennius, both legates of the Roman rebel Quintus Sertorius, and a Roman Republican army under the command of the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. The battle was fought at Valentia in Spain and ended in a stunning victory for the Pompeian army.
Gaius Memmius was a Roman politician and a soldier who served as quaestor in 76 BC. He was married to Pompeia, the sister of Pompey the Great.
The Battle of Osca took place near Osca, north-eastern Spain, between the armies of the Roman Senate and the remnants of the Sertorian rebels. The battle took place ten days after the death of the rebel leader Sertorius.
