an independent state which might bid
defiance to Rome. His influence was enhanced by the superstition of the
people. He was accompanied on all occasions by a tame fawn, which they
believed to be a familiar spirit. So attached did they become to his
person, that he found no difficulty in collecting a formidable army,
which for some years successfully opposed all the power of Rome. After
defeating several generals whom Sulla had sent against him, he had to
encounter, in B.C. 79, Q. Metellus, who had been Consul the previous
year with Sulla. But Metellus did not fare much better than his
predecessors; and in B.C. 78 Sertorius was re-enforced by a considerable
body of troops which Perperna carried with him into Spain after the
defeat of Lepidus. The growing power of Sertorius led the Senate to send
Pompey to the assistance of Metellus. Pompey, though only 30 years of
age, was already regarded as the ablest general of the Republic; and as
he played such a prominent part in the later history, we may here pause
to give a brief account of his early career.

POMPEY was born B.C. 106, and was, as we have already seen, the son of
Cn. Pompeius Strabo, who fought against the Italians in his Consulship,
B.C. 89. The young Pompey served under his father in this war, when he
was only 17 years of age, and continued with him till his death two
years afterward. He was present at the battle of the Colline Gate in
B.C. 87, and shortly afterward he saved the life of his father, and
quelled an insurrection of the soldiers by his courage and activity. As
soon as Sulla had finished the Mithridatic war, and was on his way to
Italy, Pompey, instead of waiting, like the other leaders of the
aristocracy, for the arrival of their chief, resolved to share with him
the glory of crushing the Marian party. Accordingly, he proceeded to
levy troops in Picenum without holding any public office; and such was
his personal influence that he was able to raise an army of three
legions. Before joining Sulla he gained a brilliant victory over the
Marian generals, and was received by Sulla with the greatest
distinction. Upon the conclusion of the war in Italy Pompey was sent
first into Sicily, and afterward into Africa, where the Marian party
still held out. His success was rapid and decisive. In a few months he
reduced the whole of Numidia, and, unlike other Roman governors,
abstained from plundering the province. His military achievements and
his incorruptibili