14-15 Diu et ancipiti semper acie pugnatum est, e.g. the defeat of Pompey near Lauro. (For a graphic account of the strategy by which the battle was won see Frontinus, Strat. ii. 5.)
[B.] The Death of Sertorius.
M. Perpenna praetorius e proscriptis, gentis clarioris quam animi, Sertorium inter cenam Oscae interemit Romanisque certam victoriam, partibus suis excidium, sibi turpissimam mortem pessimo 20 auctoravit facinore. Metellus et Pompeius ex Hispaniis triumphaverunt.
Vell. Paterc. ii. 30.
17 M. Perpenna praetorius (= ex-praetor), with the remnant of the army of Lepidus (defeated by Pompey in 77 B.C.) joined Sertorius in Spain. After serving under Sertorius for some years, through jealousy, he brought about his leader’s assassination.
21 auctoravit = he brought about. More usu. as auctorari = to hire oneself out for some service, e.g. of gladiators.
The Death of Sertorius. ‘So ended one of the greatest men that Rome had hitherto produced—a man who under more fortunate circumstances would perhaps have become the regenerator of his country.’—M.
Character and Early Career of Lucullus.
Magnum ingenium L. Luculli, magnumque optimarum artium studium, tum omnis liberalis et digna homine nobili ab eo percepta doctrina, quibus temporibus florere in foro maxime potuit, caruit omnino rebus urbanis. Ut enim admodum adolescens, 5 cum fratre pari pietate et industria praedito, paternas inimicitias magna cum gloria est persecutus, in Asiam quaestor profectus, ibi permultos annos admirabili quadam laude provinciae praefuit: deinde absens factus aedilis, continuo praetor: licebat 10 enim celerius legis praemio: post in Africam: inde ad consulatum: quem ita gessit ut diligentiam admirarentur omnes, ingenium cognoscerent. Post ad Mithridaticum bellum missus a senatu non modo opinionem vicit omnium quae de virtute eius erat, sed 15 etiam gloriam superiorum. Idque eo fuit mirabilius, quod ab eo laus imperatoria non admodum exspectabatur, qui adolescentiam in forensi opera, quaesturae diuturnum tempus, Murena bellum in Ponto gerente, in Asiae pace consumpserat. . . . 20 In eodem tanta prudentia fuit in constituendis temperandisque civitatibus, tanta aequitas, ut hodie stet Asia Luculli institutis servandis et quasi vestigiis persequendis.