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GUERRILLA LEADERS AS LATRONES
‘noble bandit’ that Roman society created for itself, and for which Viriatus
had been a model. The ‘noble bandit’ was vulnerable only to treachery,
‘invincible by any other method’. 108
7 The second Viriatus: Sertorius
Long after Viriatus’ death, Sertorius inherited his fame as a charismatic
leader. 109 He acquired the role of leader of Celtiberian resistance to Rome
through his political opposition to Sulla. 110 His motives and aims were
therefore entirely different from those of Viriatus. 111 However, occasionally,
like Viriatus, from a Roman perspective he indulged in ‘banditry’: in other
words, he waged a guerrilla war. 112 His tactics were to break Roman supply
lines by means of ambushes, flanking movements and surprise forced marches,
and to cut off provisioning by sea by blockading the coast with pirate
vessels. 113 The base of his maritime operations was Hemeroskopeion, a coastal
settlement north of New Carthage, the topography of which made it an
ideal pirates’ nest. 114 Following his expulsion from Spain, in 80 bc, by
Sulla’s supporter T. Annius, Sertorius also called on the aid of Cilician
pirates. 115
As guerrilla leader, Sertorius acquired the same sort of aura as Viriatus. 116
Like the Lusitanian rebel, his great model, Sertorius too was characterised
by outstanding physical, mental and, in particular, military qualities, 117
while his elderly opponent, Q. Metellus Pius, had to face the charge of
weakness. 118 Sertorius’ virtues were expressed most of all in the fact that
he, like Viriatus, could not be defeated by conventional military means.
He ‘led a force that consisted more of bandits than of soldiers’, 119 but over
time forged ‘an army out of a huge robber band’. 120 Sertorius remained
undefeated, but fell victim to the assassination plot of a group of conspirators
who, led by Peperna had formed amongst his own men. 121 The bias
which Plutarch took over from his sources122 was identical to that of the
tradition concerning Viriatus, by which the decadence of the Roman ruling
class was identified as a root cause of the crisis of the Late Republic. In
a world turned upside down, traditional virtues were embodied in men
such as Viriatus and Sertorius, who – as external or, even worse, internal
opponents – stood outside the Roman Establishment. A rather different
tradition, hostile to Sertorius and therefore not inclined to heroise him, can
be detected in Appian’s account. Here we read that Sertorius had to contend
with desertion and that his harsh disciplinary measures lost him his popularity
with his men. 123
The Sertorius legend is made somewhat unusual by the divine protection
which was supposedly vouchsafed to him, the outward manifestation of which
was a tame white hind endowed with supernatural abilities. 124 According to
the story, Sertorius claimed before the superstitiously inclined Celtiberians
that the animal was a gift from the goddess Diana, and revealed to him his
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