barbarians. Of all the Greeks, Eumenes[107] of Kardia presents the
nearest resemblance to him. Both of them were men qualified to
command; both were warlike, and yet full of stratagem; both became
exiles from their native land and the commanders of foreign troops;
and both had the same violent and unjust fortune in their end, for
both of them were the objects of conspiracy, and were cut off by the
hands of those with whom they were victorious over their enemies.

II. Quintus Sertorius belonged to a family not among the meanest in
Nussa,[108] a Sabine city. He was carefully brought up by a widowed
mother, for he had lost his father, and he appears to have been
exceedingly attached to her. His mother's name, they say, was Rhea. He
had a competent practical education in the courts of justice, and, as
a young man, he attained some influence in the city by his eloquence.
But his reputation and success in war diverted all his ambition in
that direction.

III. Now, first of all, after the Cimbri and Teutones had invaded
Gaul, he was serving under Cæpio[109] at the time when the Romans were
defeated and put to flight; and, though he lost his horse and was
wounded in the body, he crossed the Rhone swimming in his cuirass and
with his shield against the powerful stream--so strong was his body
and disciplined by exercise. On a second occasion, when the same
barbarians were advancing with many thousand men and dreadful threats,
so that for a Roman to stand to his ranks at such a time, and to obey
his general, was a great matter, Marius had the command, and Sertorius
undertook to be a spy upon the enemy. Putting on a Celtic dress, and
making himself master of the most ordinary expressions of the
language, for the purpose of conversation when occasion might offer,
he mingled with the barbarians, and, either by his own eyes or by