heaped together, and scattered it about like chaff; but when the
caecias began to blow strong, as the sun got higher, and the hills
were all covered with dust, the soldiers got on the heap of earth and
stirred it up to the bottom, and broke the clods; and some also rode
their horses up and down through the earth, kicking up the light
particles and raising them so as to be caught by the wind, which
receiving all the earth that was broken and stirred up, drove it
against the dwellings of the barbarians, whose doors were open to the
caecias. The barbarians, having only the single opening to breathe
through, upon which the wind fell, had their vision quickly obscured,
and they were speedily overpowered by a suffocating difficulty of
breathing, by reason of respiring a thick atmosphere filled with dust.
Accordingly, after holding out with difficulty for two days, they
surrendered on the third, and thus added not so much to the power as
to the reputation of Sertorius, who had taken by stratagem a place
that was impregnable to arms.

XVIII. Now, as long as Sertorius had to oppose Metellus, he was
generally considered to owe his success to the old age and natural
tardiness of Metellus, who was no match for a daring man, at the head
of a force more like a band of robbers than a regular army. But when
Pompeius had crossed the Pyrenees, and Sertorius had met him in the
field, and he and Pompeius had mutually offered one another every
opportunity for a display of generalship, and Sertorius had the
advantage in stratagem and caution, his fame was noised abroad as far
as Rome, and he was considered the most able general of his age in the
conduct of a war: for the reputation of Pompeius was no small one; but
at that time particularly he was enjoying the highest repute by reason
of his distinguished exploits in the cause of Sulla, for which Sulla
gave him the name of Magnus, which means Great, and Pompeius obtained