SERTORIUS, QUINTUS (d. 72 B.c.) Roman statesman and general, was a native of Nursia in Sabine territory. After acquir ing some reputation in Rome as a jurist and orator, be entered upon a military career. He served under Marius in 102 B.C. at Aquae Sextiae (mod. Aix). In 97 he was serving in Spain. In 91 he was quaestor in Cisalpine Gaul, and on his return to Rome he would have been elected to the tribuneship but for the opposition of Sulla. He now declared for Marius and the democratic party. On Sulla's return from the East in 83, Sertorius went to Spain, where he represented the Marian or democratic party, but without receiving any definite commission or appointment. Having been obliged to withdraw to Africa in consequence of the advance of the forces of Sulla over the Pyrenees, he carried on a campaign in Mauretania, in which he defeated one of Sulla's generals and captured Tingis (Tangier). The Lusitanian tribes then invited him (8o) to head a rising. Brave and kindly, and gifted with a rough telling eloquence, Sertorius was just the man to impress them favourably, and the native militia, which he organized, spoke of him as the "new Hannibal." Many Roman refugees and de serters joined him, and with these and his Spanish volunteers he completely defeated one of Sulla's generals and drove Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had been specially sent against him from Rome, out of Lusitania.
Sertorius owed much of his success to his statesmanlike ability. His object was to build up a stable government in the country with the consent and co-operation of the people, whom he wished to civilize after the Roman model. He established a senate of 300 members, drawn from Roman emigrants, with probably a sprink ling of the best Spaniards, and surrounded himself with a Spanish bodyguard. For the children of the chief native families he pro
vided a school at Osca (Huesca), where they received a Roman education and even adopted the dress of Roman youths. Strict and severe as he was with his soldiers, he was particularly con siderate to the people generally, and made burdens as light as possible. It seems clear that he had a peculiar gift for evoking the enthusiasm of rude tribes, and we can well understand how the famous white fawn, a present from one of the natives, which was his constant companion and was supposed to communicate to him the advice of the goddess Diana, promoted his popularity.
For six years Sertorius may be said to have really ruled Spain. In 77 he was joined by M. Perperna (or Perpenna) Vento from Rome, with a following of Roman nobles, and in the same year the great Pompey (q.v.) was sent to conquer him. Sertorius proved himself more than a match for his adversaries, utterly defeating their united forces on one occasion near Saguntum. Pompey wrote to Rome for reinforcements, without which, he said, he and Metellus would be driven out of Spain. Sertorius was in league with the pirates in the Mediterranean, was negotiating with the formidable Mithridates, and was in communication with the in surgent slaves in Italy. But the arrival of Perperna formed a centre of disaffection, and his influence over the native tribes slipped away from him, though he won victories to the last. In 72 he was assassinated at a banquet, Perperna, it seems, being the chief instigator of the deed.
See Plutarch's lives of Sertorius and Pompey; Appian, Bell. civ. and Hispanica; the fragments of Sallust ; Dio Cassius xxxvi. 25, 27, 28, xliv. 47 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 25, 29, 30, 90.