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Quintus Sertorius | |||||||||
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| Born | c. 126 BC | ||||||||
| Died | 73 or 72 BC (aged 53–54) Osca, Hispania | ||||||||
| Cause of death | Assassination (Stabbed to death) | ||||||||
| Known for | Rebellion in Hispania against the Roman Senate | ||||||||
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| Military career | |||||||||
| Allegiance | Roman Republic Marius–Cinna faction | ||||||||
| Battles / wars | |||||||||
Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 BC[6] – 73 or 72 BC[7]) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian Peninsula. Defying the regime of Sulla, Sertorius became the independent ruler of Hispania for most of a decade until his assassination.
Sertorius first became prominent during the Cimbrian War fighting under Gaius Marius, and then served Rome in the Social War. After Lucius Cornelius Sulla blocked Sertorius' attempt at the plebeian tribunate c. 88 BC, following Sulla's consulship, Sertorius joined with Cinna and Marius in the civil war of 87 BC. He led in the assault on Rome and restrained the reprisals that followed. During Cinna's repeated consulships he was elected praetor, likely in 85 or 84 BC. He criticised Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and other Marians' leadership of the anti-Sullan forces during the civil war with Sulla and was, late in the war, given command of Hispania.
In late 82 BC Sertorius was proscribed by Sulla and forced from his province. However, he soon returned in early 80 BC, taking in and leading many Marian and Cinnan exiles in a prolonged war, representing himself as a Roman proconsul resisting the Sullan regime at Rome. He gathered support from other Roman exiles and the native Iberian tribes – in part by using his tamed white fawn to claim he had divine favour – and employed irregular and guerrilla warfare to repeatedly defeat commanders sent from Rome to subdue him. Sertorius allied with Mithridates VI of Pontus and Cilician pirates in his struggle against the Roman government.
Sertorius successfully sustained his anti-Sullan resistance in Hispania for many years, despite substantial efforts to subdue him by the Sullan regime and its generals Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and Pompey. After defeating Pompey in 76 BC at the Battle of Lauron however, he suffered numerous setbacks in later years. By 73 BC his allies had lost confidence in his leadership; his lieutenant Marcus Perperna Veiento assassinated him in late 73 or 72 BC.[6] His cause fell in defeat to Pompey shortly thereafter.[8] The Greek biographer and essayist Plutarch chose Sertorius as the focus of one of his biographies in Parallel Lives, where he was paired with Eumenes of Cardia, one of the post-Alexandrine Diadochi.
- ^ c. 80–72 BC; https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb417500287
- ^ Brennan 2000, p. 503 (arguing against 86 and earlier as well as 83 and later), 849 n. 242 (citing Konrad 1994, pp. 74–76).
- ^ Konrad 1987, p. 525, "That Sertorius always thought of himself and acted as a Roman proconsul... should no longer be doubted" (emphasis in original); Brennan 2000, p. 507, "Sertorius, the outlaw pro consule for Spain".
- ^ Brennan 2000, p. 502. "Sertorius' provincia was apparently Hispania Citerior, which he set out for... in late 83... [H]e may have been intended to hold both Citerior and Ulterior".
- ^ Broughton 1952, p. 70, placing promagistracy starting in 82 BC.
- ^ a b Konrad 2012.
- ^ Konrad 1995, pp. 160–62 (arguing for 73); Brennan 2000, pp. 508 ("Konrad['s case]... ultimately fails to convince"), 514 (placing assassination to 72), 852 n. 290.
- ^ Badian, Ernst (2012). "Perperna Veiento, Marcus". Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4876.