Quintus Sertorius

Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius, fighting under Marius during the Cimbric Wars and aligning himself with Cinna during the Roman civil wars started by Sulla's first march on Rome. During the later years of the civil war of 83–81 BC, he was sent to recover the Iberian Peninsula. As the last outpost of the defeated Marian regime, Sertorius defied the Sullan government in Rome from Hispania for most of a decade. He was never decisively beaten on the battlefield and remained a thorn in the Senate's side until his murder in 73 BC.

When his faction lost the war, Sertorius was proscribed (outlawed) by the dictator Sulla. Supported by a majority of the native Iberian tribes, Sertorius skillfully used irregular warfare to repeatedly defeat various commanders sent by Rome to subdue him. The Sullan Senate devoted significant resources to defeating him; later in his war, he contended with Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey).

In his Parallel Lives, the Greek biographer Plutarch paired Sertorius with Eumenes. Like Eumenes, Sertorius was betrayed by his own men.^[3][4] Both generals also fought for a defeated cause, much weakened in power.