Battle of Saguntum (75 BC)

The Battle of Saguntum was fought in 75 BC between forces of the Roman Republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and an army of Sertorian rebels under the command of Quintus Sertorius. The location of the battle is disputed, but most likely near modern Langa de Duero, as Sallust informs us the battle was fought on the banks of the river Duoro. The battle lasted from noon till night and ended in a draw.

Background
In 88 BC Lucius Cornelius Sulla marched his legions on Rome starting a civil war. Quintus Sertorius, a client of Gaius Marius, joined his patron's faction and took up the sword against the Sullan faction (mainly optimates). After the death of Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gaius Marius, Sertorius lost faith with his factions leadership. In 82 BC, during the second war against Sulla, he left Italy for his assigned propraetorian province in Hispania. Unfortunately his faction lost the war in Italy right after his departure and in 81 BC Sulla sent Gaius Annius Luscus with several legions to take the Spanish provinces from Sertorius. After a brief resistance Sertorius and his men are expelled form Hispania. They end up in Mauretania in north-eastern Africa where they conquer the city of Tingis. Here the Lusitanians, a fierce Iberian tribe who were about to be invaded by a Sullan governor, approached him. They asked him to become their warleader in the fight against the Sullans. In 80 BC Sertorius landed at the little fishing town of Baelo near the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) and returned to Hispania. Soon after his landing he fought and defeated the Sullan general Fufidius (the aforementioned Sullan governor) at the Baetis river. After this he defeated several Sullan armies and drove his opponents from Spain. Threatened by Sertorius' success the Senate in Rome upgraded Hispania Ulterior to a proconsular province and sent the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius with a large army to fight him. Sertorius used guerrilla tactics so effectively he wore down Metellus to the point of exhaustion while Sertorius' legate Lucius Hirtuleius defeated the governor of Hispania Citerior Marcus Domitius Calvinus. In 76 BC the government in Rome decided to send Pompey and an even larger army to help Metellus. In the same year Sertorius is joined by Marcus Perpenna, who brought him the remnants of the army of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the rebel consul of 78 BC. Thus reinforced Sertorius decided to try and take the Spanish east coast (because the cities there support his enemies). His first target was the city of Lauron where he outgeneraled Pompey and massacred a large part of his army (see: the battle of Lauron).

Prelude
In 75 BC Sertorius decided to take on Metellus and leave the battred Pompey to his legates Perpenna and Herennius. Pompey defeated his opponents in a battle near Valentia and forced Sertorius to come and take charge of the situation. Metellus used the change in command to defeat Hirtuleius whom Sertorius had left in charge at the battle of Italica and marched after Sertorius. Pompey and Sertorius, not wanting to wait for Metellus, met at the battle of Sucro, which ended in a draw. Sertorius gave up his conquest of the Spanish east coast and withdrew inland. Metellus and Pompey followed him to "Saguntum" (probably not Saguntum on the coast but one of the many Segontias in Celtiberia since Sertorius had withdrawn inland).

The battle
Plutarch remarks that this battle was forced upon Sertorius (probably by his Iberian troops). The fighting started at noon and lasted well into the night. Sertorius first fought Pompey while Perpenna and Hirtuleius fought Metellus. After Hirtuleius had fallen Sertorius switched places with Perpenna and launched several personally-led ad hominem attacks on Metellus intended on taking him out of the fight. Metellus stood his ground and in the course of the fight he was wounded by a spear. This turned out to be a turning point in the battle for Metellus' men counter-attacked in revenge and pushed back the Iberians. Metellus then, complacent of victory, decided to rest his troops and made camp. Sertorius in the meantime had regrouped his men and on the evening launched an unexpected attack on Metellus' camp, and attempted to exploit its vulnerable position by cutting it of with a trench. Unfortunately Pompey and his army now showed up and forced Sertorius to withdraw. Sertorius ordered his army to break up and reassamble at a place he designated. Sertorius himself made for the fortress town of Clunia. Sertorius' second-in-command Lucius Hirtuleius and Pompey's brother-in-law Gaius Memmius were among the casualties.

Aftermath
This was the last pitched battle Sertorius fought, and probably one he had not wanted in the first place. Even while fortifying Clunia Sertorius was dispatching messengers to his allies, requesting them to raise new levies. The war was long from over, Sertorius still had allies, his reputation and an army. After the Siege of Clunia he reverted to guerilla warfare and the war would drag on for another three years and only end because a few of his own men plotted against Sertorius and assassinated him.