Quintus Sertorius

Quintus Sertorius
Bornc. 126 BC
DiedAutumn 73 BC[1] (aged c. 53)
Cause of deathAssassination (Stabbed to death)
NationalityRoman
Occupation(s)Statesman, lawyer, general
Known forRebellion in Spain against the Roman Senate
Officecursus honorum up to praetor, after which he became propraetor (governor) of both Hispania Citerior and Ulterior[2]
Political partyPopulares
Military career
AllegianceRoman Republic
MariusCinna faction
Battles/warsCimbric War
Social War
Bellum Octavianum
Sulla's civil war
Sertorian War
AwardsGrass Crown

Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius. During the later years of the civil war of 83–81 BC, he was sent to recover the Iberian Peninsula. When his faction lost the war, Sertorius was proscribed (outlawed) by the dictator Sulla. Supported by a majority of the native Iberian tribes, Sertorius skillfully used irregular warfare to repeatedly defeat various commanders sent by Rome to subdue him. He was never decisively beaten on the battlefield and remained a thorn in the Senate's side until his murder in 73 BC.

In his Parallel Lives, the Greek biographer Plutarch paired Sertorius with Eumenes. Like Eumenes, Sertorius was betrayed by his own men.[3][4]

  1. ^ Konrad, p. 217.
  2. ^ Despite being a propraetor, he was probably given proconsular powers by the Cinna-Marian regime, because he had to take the province(s) from the proconsul Gaius Valerius Flaccus.
  3. ^ Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Life of Sertorius; Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain, ISBN 1-84884-787-4
  4. ^ "Quintus Sertorius". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

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