and check the foraging; and when Metellus was advancing Sertorius
would get out of his way, and when he was encamped he would not let
him rest; when Metellus was occupied with a siege, Sertorius would all
at once show himself, and put Metellus in his turn in a state of
blockade, owing to the want of the necessary supplies, so that the
soldiers were quite wearied; and when Sertorius challenged Metellus to
a single combat, the men cried out and bid him fight, as it would be a
match between a general and a general, and a Roman and a Roman; and
when Metellus declined, they jeered him. But he laughed at them, and
he did right; for a general, as Theophrastus[141] said, should die the
death of a general, not that of a common targetier. Metellus
perceiving that the Langobritæ[142] assisted Sertorius in no small
degree, and that their town could easily be taken, as it was ill
supplied with water, for they had only one well in the city, and any
one who blockaded the place would be master of the streams in the
suburbs and near the walls, he advanced against the city, expecting to
finish the siege in two days, as there was no water; and accordingly
his soldiers received orders to take provisions with them for five
days only. But Sertorius quickly coming to their aid, gave orders to
fill two thousand skins with water, and he offered for each skin a
considerable sum of money. Many Iberians and Moors volunteered for the
service, and, selecting the men who were strong and light-footed, he
sent them through the mountain parts, with orders, when they had
delivered the skins to the people in the city, to bring out of the
town all the useless people, that the water might last the longer for
those who defended the place. When the news reached Metellus he was
much annoyed, for his soldiers had already consumed their provisions;
but he sent Aquinius,[143] at the head of six thousand men, to forage.
Sertorius got notice of this, and laid an ambush on the road of three
thousand men who starting up out of a bushy ravine, fell on Aquinius