Sertorius   

bear arms; but on account of the insolence and covetousness of the
governors from time to time sent thither from Rome they had generally
an aversion to Roman supremacy. He, however, soon gained the affection
of their nobles by intercourse with them, and the good opinion of
the people by remitting their taxes. But that which won him most popularity
was his exempting them from finding lodgings for the soldiers, when
he commanded his army to take up their winter quarters outside the
cities, and to pitch their camp in the suburbs; and when he himself,
first of all, caused his own tent to be raised without the walls.
Yet not being willing to rely totally upon the good inclination of
the inhabitants he armed all the Romans who lived in those countries
that were of military age, and undertook the building of ships and
the making of all sorts of warlike engines, by which means he kept
the cities in due obedience, showing himself gentle in all peaceful
business, and at the same time formidable to his enemies by his great
preparations for war.
As soon as he was informed that Sylla had made himself master of Rome,
and that the party which sided with Marius and Carbo was going to
destruction, he expected that some commander with a considerable army
would speedily come against him, and therefore sent away Julius Salinator
immediately, with six thousand men fully armed, to fortify and defend
the passes of the Pyrenees. And Caius Annius not long after being
sent out by Sylla, finding Julius unassailable, sat down short at
the foot of the mountains in perplexity. But a certain Calpurnius,
surnamed Lanarius, having treacherously slain Julius, and his soldiers
then forsaking the heights of the Pyrenees, Caius Annius advanced
with large numbers and drove before him all who endeavoured to hinder
his march. Sertorius, also, not being strong enough to give him battle,
retreated with three thousand men into New Carthage, where he took
shipping, and crossed the seas into Africa. And coming near the coast
of Mauritania, his men went on shore to water, and straggling about
negligently, the natives fell upon them and slew a great number. This
new misfortune forced him to sail back again into Spain, whence he
was also repulsed, and, some Cilician private ships joining with him,
they made for the island of Pityussa, where they landed and overpowered
the garrison placed there by Annius, who, however, came not long after
with a great fleet of ships and five thousand soldiers. And Sertorius
made ready to fight him by sea, although his ships were not built
for strength, but for lightness and swift sailing; but a violent west
wind raised such a sea that many of them were run aground and shipwrecked,
and he himself, with a few vessels, being kept from putting further
out to sea by the fury of the weather, and from landing by the power
of his enemies, were tossed about painfully for ten days together,
amidst the boisterous and adverse waves.
He escaped with difficulty, and after the wind ceased, ran for certain
desert islands scattered in those seas, affording no water, and after
passing a night there, making out to sea again, he went through the
straits of Cadiz, and sailing outward, keeping the Spanish shore on
his right hand, landed a little above the mouth of the river Baetis,
where it falls into the Atlantic Sea, and gives the name to that part
of Spain. Here he met with seamen recently arrived from the Atlantic
islands, two in number, divided from one another only by a narrow
channel, and distant from the coast of Africa ten thousand furlongs.
These are called the Islands of the Blest; rain falls there seldom,
and in moderate showers, but for the most part they have gentle breezes,
bringing along with them soft dews, which render the soil not only
rich for ploughing and planting, but so abundantly fruitful that it
produces spontaneously an abundance of delicate fruits, sufficient
to feed the inhabitants, who may here enjoy all things without trouble
or labour. The seasons of the year are temperate, and the transitions
from one to another so moderate that the air is almost always serene
and pleasant. The rough northerly and easterly winds which blow from
the coasts of Europe and Africa, dissipated in the vast open space,
utterly lose their force before they reach the islands. The soft western