Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
most by a union of daring and cunning, have been one-eyed men,
Philippus,[105] Antigonus, Annibal, and the subject of this
Life--Sertorius; he whom one may affirm to have been more continent as
to women than Philip, more true to his friends than Antigonus, more
merciful to his enemies than Annibal,[106] inferior in understanding
to none of them, but in fortune inferior to all; and, though he always
found Fortune more hard to deal with than his open enemies, yet he
proved himself her equal by opposing the experience of Metellus, the
daring of Pompeius, the fortune of Sulla, and the power of the whole
Roman state; a fugitive and a stranger putting himself at the head of
barbarians. Of all the Greeks, Eumenes[107] of Kardia presents the
nearest resemblance to him. Both of them were men qualified to
command; both were warlike, and yet full of stratagem; both became
exiles from their native land and the commanders of foreign troops;
and both had the same violent and unjust fortune in their end, for
both of them were the objects of conspiracy, and were cut off by the
hands of those with whom they were victorious over their enemies.
II. Quintus Sertorius belonged to a family not among the meanest in
Nussa,[108] a Sabine city. He was carefully brought up by a widowed
mother, for he had lost his father, and he appears to have been
exceedingly attached to her. His mother's name, they say, was Rhea. He
had a competent practical education in the courts of justice, and, as
a young man, he attained some influence in the city by his eloquence.
But his reputation and success in war diverted all his ambition in
that direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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