Quintus Sertorius - Early Political Career

Early Political Career

After acquiring some reputation in Rome as a jurist and an orator, he began a military career. His first recorded campaign was under Quintus Servilius Caepio at the Battle of Arausio, where he showed unusual courage. Serving under Gaius Marius in 102 BC, Sertorius succeeded in spying on the wandering German tribes that had defeated Caepio. After this success, he fought at the great Battle of Aquae Sextiae (now Aix-en-Provence, France) in which the Teutones were decisively defeated. In 97 BC, he served in Hispania as a military tribune under Titus Didius, winning the Grass Crown.

In 91 he was quaestor in Cisalpine Gaul, where he was in charge of recruiting and training legions for the Social War. During this time he sustained a wound that cost him the use of one of his eyes. Upon his return to Rome he ran for tribune, but Lucius Cornelius Sulla thwarted his efforts (for reasons unknown), causing Sertorius to oppose him.

After Sulla forced Marius into exile, and Sulla left Rome to fight Mithridates, violence erupted between the Optimates, led by the consul Gnaeus Octavius, and the Populares, led by the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Sertorius now declared for Cinna and the Populares. Though he had a very bad opinion of Marius, he consented to Marius' return upon understanding that Marius came at Cinna's request and not of his own accord. After Octavius surrendered Rome to the forces of Marius, Cinna, and Sertorius in 87, Sertorius abstained from the proscriptions his fellow commanders engaged in. Sertorius went so far as to rebuke Marius, and move Cinna to moderation, while annihilating Marius' slave army that had partaken in his atrocities.