(The Roman who endeavored to establish a separate government for himself
in Spain.)
Sertorius was highly honored for his introducing discipline and good
order among the Spaniards, for he altered their furious and savage
manner of fighting, and brought them to make use of the Roman armor,
taught them to keep their ranks, and observe signals and watchwords;
and out of a confused horde of thieves and robbers, he constituted a
regular, well-disciplined army. He bestowed silver and gold upon them
liberally to gild and adorn their helmets, he had their shields worked
with various figures and designs, he brought them into the mode of
wearing flowered and embroidered cloaks and coats, and by supplying
money for these purposes, and joining with them in all improvements, he
won the hearts of all. That, however, which delighted them most, was the
care that he took of their children. He sent for all the boys of noblest
parentage out of all their tribes, and placed them in the great city
of Osca, where he appointed masters to instruct them in the Grecian
and Roman learning, that when they came to be men, they might, as he
professed, be fitted to share with him in authority, and in conducting
the government, although under this pretext he really made them
hostages. However, their fathers were wonderfully pleased to see their
children going daily to the schools in good order, handsomely dressed
in gowns edged with purple, and that Sertorius paid for their lessons,
examined them often, distributed rewards to the most deserving, and
gave them the golden bosses to hang around their necks, which the Romans
called "bullae."
All the cities on this side of the river Ebro finally united their
forces under his command, and his army grew very great, for they
flocked together and flowed in upon him from all quarters. But when they
continually cried out to attack the enemy, and were impatient of delay,
their inexperienced, disorderly rashness caused Sertorius much trouble,
who at first strove to restrain them with reason and good counsel, but
when he perceived them refractory and unseasonably violent, he gave way
to their impetuous desires, and permitted them to engage with the enemy,
in such a way that they might be repulsed, yet not totally routed, and
so become more obedient to his commands for the future. This happening
as he had anticipated, he soon rescued them, and brought them safe into
his camp. And after a few days, being willing to encourage them again,
when he had called all his army together, he caused two horses to be
brought into the field, one an old, feeble, lean animal, the other a
lusty, strong horse, with a remarkably thick and long tail. Near the
lean one he placed a tall, strong man, and near the strong, young horse
a weak, despicable-looking fellow; and at a given signal the strong man
took hold of the weak horse's tail with both his hands, and drew it to
him with his whole force, as if he would pull it off; the other, the
weak man, in the meantime, set to work to pluck off hair by hair the
great horse's tail. And when the strong man had given trouble enough
to himself in vain, and sufficient diversion to the company, and had
abandoned his attempt, whilst the weak, pitiful fellow in a short time
and with little pains had left not a hair on the great horse's tail,
Sertorius arose and said to his army, "You see, fellow-soldiers, that
perseverance is more prevailing than violence, and that many things
which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield readily when
taken little by little. Assiduity and persistence are irresistible,
and in time overthrow and destroy the greatest powers. Time being the
favorable friend and assistant of those who use their judgment to await
his occasions, and the destructive enemy of those who are unseasonably
urging and pressing forward."
Of all his remarkable exploits, none raised greater admiration than that
which he put in practice against the Characitanians. These are a people
beyond the river Tagus, who inhabit neither cities nor towns, but live
in a vast, high hill, within the deep dens and caves of the rocks, the
mouths of which all open towards the north. The country below is of a
soil resembling a light clay, so loose as easily to break into powder,
and is not firm enough to bear any one that treads upon it, and if you
touch it in the least, it flies about like ashes or unslaked lime. In
any danger of war, these people enter their caves, and carrying in their
booty and prey along with them, stay quietly within, secure from every
attack. And when Sertorius, leaving Metellus some distance off,
had placed his camp near this hill, they slighted and despised him,
imagining that he retired into these parts to escape being overthrown
by the Romans. And whether out of anger and resentment, or out of
his unwillingness to be thought to fly from his enemies, early in the
morning he rode up to view the situation of the place. But finding there
was no way to come at it, as he rode about, threatening them in vain and
disconcerted, he took notice that the wind raised the dust and carried
it up towards the caves of the Characitanians, and the northerly wind,
which some call Caecias, prevailing most in those parts, coming up out
of moist plains or mountains covered with snow, at this particular
time, in the heat of summer, being further supplied and increased by
the melting of the ice in the northern regions, blew a delightful, fresh
gale, cooling and refreshing the Characitanians and their cattle all the
day long. Sertorius, considering well all circumstances in which either
the information of the inhabitants, or his own experience had instructed
him, commanded his soldiers to shovel up a great quantity of this light,
dusty earth, to heap it together, and make a mound of it over against
the hill in which these barbarous people lived, who, imagining that all
this preparation was for raising a mound to get at them, only mocked
and laughed at it. However, he continued the work till the evening, and
brought his soldiers back into their camp. The next morning a gentle
breeze at first arose, and moved the lightest parts of the earth, and
dispersed it about as the chaff before the wind; but when the sun got
higher, and the strong, northerly wind had covered the hills with the
dust, the soldiers came and turned this mound of earth over and over,
and broke the hard clods in pieces, whilst others on horseback rode
through it backward and forward, and raised a cloud of dust into the
air; then with the wind the whole of it was carried away and blown into
the dwellings of the Characitanians, all lying open to the north. And
there being no other vent or breathing-place than that through which the
Caecias rushed in upon them, it quickly blinded their eyes, and filled
their lungs, and all but choked them, whilst they strove to draw in the
rough air mingled with dust and powdered earth. Nor were they able, with
all they could do, to hold out more than two days, but surrendered
on the third, adding, by their defeat, not so much to the power of
Sertorius, as to his renown, in proving that he was able to conquer
places by art, which were impregnable by the force of arms.