me mistake that they did, but he set a watch there,
and, hemming in the city on all sides, he massacred every man who was
of age to bear arms. When the massacre was over, he ordered all his
soldiers to lay down their own armour and dress, and, putting on those
of the barbarians, to follow him to the city from which the men came
who had fallen on them in the night. The barbarians were deceived by
the armour, and he found the gates open, and a number of men expecting
to meet friends and fellow-citizens, returning from a successful
expedition. Accordingly, most of them were killed by the Romans near
the gates, and the rest surrendered and were sold as slaves.

IV. This made the name of Sertorius known in Iberia; and as soon as he
returned to Rome he was appointed quaestor in Gaul upon the Padus at a
critical time; for the Marsic[112] war was threatening. Being
commissioned to levy troops and procure arms, he applied so much zeal
and expedition to the work, compared with the tardiness and indolence
of the other young men, that he got the reputation of being a man
likely to run an active career. Yet he remitted nothing of the daring
of a soldier after he was promoted to the rank of commander; but he
exhibited wonderful feats of courage, and exposed himself without any
reserve to danger, whereby he lost one of his eyes through a wound.
But he always prided himself on this. He used to say that others did
not always carry about with them the proofs of their valour, but put
them aside, at times, as chains and spears, and crowns, while the
proofs of his valour always abided with him, and those who saw what he
had lost saw at the same time the evidences of his courage. The people
also showed him appropriate marks of respect; for, on his entering the
theatre, they received him with clapping of hands and expressions of
their good wishes--testimonials which even those who were far advanced
in age, and high in rank, could with difficulty obtain. However, when
he was a candidate for the tribuneship, Sulla raised a party against
him, and he failed; and this was, apparently, the reason why he hated
Sulla. But when Marius was overpowered by Sulla and fled from Rome,
and Sulla had set out to fight with Mithridates, and the consul
Octavius adhered to the party of Sulla, while his colleague Cinna, who
aimed at a revolution, revived the drooping faction of Marius,
Sertorius attached himself to Cinna, especially as he saw that
Octavius was def