Sertorius   

IT is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune takes
her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously
occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be wrought upon be
infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, with such an abundance
of material, to effect this similarity of results. Or if, on the other
hand, events are limited to the combinations of some finite number,
then of necessity the same must often recur, and in the same sequence.
There are people who take a pleasure in making collections of all
such fortuitous occurrences that they have heard or read of, as look
like works of a rational power and design; they observe, for example,
that two eminent persons whose names were Attis, the one a Syrian,
the other of Arcadia, were both slain by a wild boar; that of two
whose names were Actaeon, the one was torn in pieces by his dogs,
the other by his lovers; that of two famous Scipios, the one overthrew
the Carthaginians in war, the other totally ruined and destroyed them;
the city of Troy was the first time taken by Hercules for the horses
promised him by Laomedon, the second time by Agamemnon, by means of
the celebrated great wooden horse, and the third time by Charidemus,
by occasion of a horse falling down at the gate, which hindered the
Trojans, so that they could not shut them soon enough; and of two
cities which take their names from the most agreeable odoriferous
plants, Ios and Smyrna, the one from a violet, the other from myrrh,
the poet Homer is reported to have been born in the one and to have
died in the other. And so to these instances let us further add, that
the most warlike commanders, and most remarkable for exploits of skilful
stratagem, have had but one eye; as Philip, Antigonus, Hannibal, and
Sertorius, whose life and actions we describe at present; of whom,
indeed, we might truly say, that he was more continent than Philip,
more faithful to his friends than Antigonus, and more merciful to
his enemies than Hannibal; and that for prudence and judgment he gave
place to none of them, but in fortune was inferior to them all. Yet
though he had continually in her a far more difficult adversary to
contend against than his open enemies, he nevertheless maintained
his ground, with the military skill of Metellus, the boldness of Pompey,
the success of Sylla, and the power of the Roman people, all to be
encountered by one who was a banished man and a stranger at the head
of a body of barbarians. Among Greek commanders, Eumenes of Cardia
may be best compared with him; they were both of them men born for
command, for warfare, and for stratagem; both banished from their
countries, and holding command over strangers; both had fortune for
their adversary, in their last days so harshly so, that they were
both betrayed and murdered by those who served them, and with whom
they had formerly overcome their enemies.
Quintus Sertorius was of a noble family, born in the city of Nursia,
in the country of the Sabines; his father died when he was young,
and he was carefully and decently educated by his mother, whose name
was Rhea, and whom he appears to have extremely loved and honoured.
He paid some attention to the study of oratory and pleading in his
youth, and acquired some reputation and influence in Rome by his eloquence;
but the splendour of his actions in arms, and his successful achievements
in the wars, drew off his ambition in that direction.
At his first beginning, he served under Caepio, when the Cimbri and
Teutones invaded Gaul; where the Romans fighting unsuccessfully, and
being put to flight, he was wounded in many parts of his body, and
lost his horse, yet, nevertheless, swam across the river Rhone in
his armour, with his breastplate and shield, bearing himself up against
the violence of the current; so strong and so well inured to hardship
was his body.
The second time that the Cimbri and Teutones came down with some hundreds
of thousands, threatening death and destruction to all, when it was
no small piece of service for a Roman soldier to keep his ranks and
obey his commander, Sertorius undertook, while Marius led the army,
to spy out the enemy's camp. Procuring a Celtic dress, and acquainting