The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End / with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books

by Livy

* Belonging to the 83rd book.

Since when all the statues were overthrown and burned along with the town, the statue of Minerva alone is reported (as Livy says) to have stood uninjured under the ruins of that immense temple.—Augustin.

Belonging to the 91st book.

The inhabitants of Contrebia, although they were attacked by the pangs of famine, in addition to their other calamities, after making many ineffectual attempts to repel the war from their city and walls, injured the works of Sertorius by casting fire from the walls; and a tower of many stories, which exceeded in height all the fortifications of the city, being consumed by the spreading flames, fell to the ground with a great crash. However, during the following night another tower was reared in the same place, by the efforts of Sertorius, who remained awake all night; the sight of which at the dawn struck the enemy with astonishment. At the same time the city-tower, which had been their strongest defence, as its foundations were undermined, began to yawn with great rents, and afterwards take fire from a torch that was thrown against it; and the inhabitants of Contrebia, being terrified by the fear of the fire and fall of the battlements combined, fled in alarm from the walls: and the whole populace shouted out that ambassadors should be sent to surrender the city. The same valour which had urged Sertorius to besiege them when they provoked him, made him, when victorious, more inclined to mercy. After receiving hostages, he exacted a small sum of money, and took away from them all their arms. He ordered the deserters that were freemen to be brought alive to him: he ordered the inhabitants to slay the fugitive slaves, of whom there was a greater number. They cut their throats and cast them from the walls. Having reduced Contrebia, after a siege of forty-four days, which cost him a great number of men, and having left Lucius Insteius in command there with a strong garrison, he himself marched his army to the river Iberus. Then having built his winter quarters nigh to the town, which is called Castra Ælia, he remained in person in the camp; during the day he held a congress of the allied states in the town. He had previously issued a proclamation throughout the entire province, that each state should make arms in proportion to its resources: and after inspecting them, he ordered his soldiers to bring in their other arms, which had been rendered ineffective by frequent marches, or assaults and battles, and divided the new arms among the men by means of the centurions. He also furnished the cavalry with new arms: and distributed among them clothes, which had been previously prepared for them, and gave them pay also. He searched carefully for mechanics, and brought them together from every quarter, and erected public manufactories in which he could employ their labour, and made calculations of the amount of work that could be done each day. Therefore all the implements of war were in process of preparation at the same time: neither did the mechanics want materials, as all things had been previously prepared by the zealous efforts of the states; nor was any department of the service unprovided with proper workmen. Then, after calling together the embassies of all the nations and states, he returned them thanks, because they furnished the supplies which had been levied on them for the infantry: he laid before them a statement of the acts which he had performed in defending his allies and besieging the cities of the enemy, and encouraged them to prosecute the war with vigour: he informed them, briefly, how deeply the provinces of Spain were interested in the success of his party. He then dismissed the assembly, and after bidding them all to be of good courage, and return to their respective states, he sent Marcus Perperna early in spring with twenty thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry, to the nation of the Ilercaonians, to defend the maritime coast of that country: he gave him instructions relative to the routes by which he should march to defend the cities in alliance with him, which Pompey was besieging, and pointed out the places in which he might lay ambuscades for Pompey on his march. At the same time he sent letters to Herennuleius, who was in the same country, and to Lucius Hirtulius, in the other province, with instructions as to the manner in which he wished the war to be conducted: charging him especially “to defend the allied states in such a manner as not to fight a pitched battle with Metellus, for whom he was not a match either in influence or strength. That he himself did not intend to march against Pompey; nor did he believe that the latter would come to a pitched battle; since if the war were protracted, the enemy could procure supplies from every quarter by their shipping, as they had the sea at their back, and all the provinces under their dominion; and that he himself would be reduced to want of every thing, since what he had previously stored was consumed during the former summer. That Perperna was appointed to the command of the region bordering on the sea, in order that he might be able to defend the country which was as yet free from the ravages of the enemy, and at the same time attack them unawares, if any opportunity should occur.” He determined to march in person with his army against the Beronians and Autrigonians; because he ascertained that they had frequently, during the winter, solicited aid from Pompey, and had sent persons to point out the way to the Roman army, during the time that he himself was employed in besieging the Celtiberian cities; and besides, his soldiers were often harassed by their cavalry during the siege of Contrebia, in whatsoever direction they might proceed in search of corn and forage. They had even the hardihood at that time to solicit the Arevaci to join their party. He intended, after giving them an example of the severity of war, to deliberate which of his two enemies he should attack, which of the two provinces he should repair to: whether he should go to the maritime coast, to prevent Pompey from entering Ilercaonia and Contestania, both of which were allied nations, or should turn his attention to Metellus and Lusitania. Sertorius, anxiously deliberating on these plans, marched his army peaceably along the banks of the river Iberus, through the territory of his allies, without injuring any one. Then he marched into the territories of the Bursaonians, Cascantinians, and Gracchuritanians; and after wasting every thing, and trampling down the crops, came to Calaguris Nasica, a city of the allies; and after passing the river nigh to the town, by a bridge built for the occasion, he encamped there. On the next day he sent Marcus Marius, the quæstor, into the territory of the Arevacans and Cerindonians, to enlist soldiers among those nations, and to convey the corn from them to Contrebia, called also Leucas, near which city lay the most convenient roads leading out of the country of the Beronians, in whatever direction he should determine to march his army: and he sent Caius Insteius, the prefect of the cavalry, to Liguria and the nation of the Vaccæans, to search for horsemen, with orders to wait for him at Contrebia with such cavalry as he could collect. After despatching them, he himself set out, and having marched his army through the territory of the Vasconians, pitched his camp on the confines of the Beronians. On the next day he went forward with the cavalry to reconnoitre the roads, after giving orders to the infantry to march in the form of a square, and came to Vaccæa, the strongest city in that country. He came on them unexpectedly during the night. The townsmen having summoned from every quarter the cavalry, both of their own nation and the Autrigonians, made a sally and marched against Sertorius, to prevent him from entering the pass.—The Vatican copy of Livy. This was the first battle that was fought between Sertorius and Pompey. We have the authority of Livy, that Pompey’s army lost ten thousand men and all their baggage.—Frontinus.

* Belonging to the 94th book.

Livy says, in his 94th book, that Inarime was in part of Mæonia, where, for an extent of fifty miles, the earth has been burned with fire. He intimates that Homer signified the same fact.—Servius. Æn. ix. 715.

Belonging to the 97th book.

Livy relates that thirty thousand armed men (composed of the fugitives conquered by Crassus) were slain in that battle with their leaders, Castus and Gannicus, and that five of the Roman eagles were recovered, besides twenty-six military standards, and many spoils, among which were the rods and axes.—Frontinus.

* Belonging to the 98th book.

Livy says that the Romans never before, with such inferior numbers, engaged an enemy. For the victors were scarcely equal in number to a twentieth, or even a smaller portion, of the conquered.—Plutarch. Lucullus. We have the authority of Livy that in the former engagement (that at Tigranocerta) a greater number of the enemy was slain and taken prisoners, but in the latter battle (that at Artaxata) the noblest of the nation met that fate.—Plutarch. Lucullus.