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There remained of the Sullan troubles the war with Sertorius, which had been
going on for eight years,
1 and was not an easy war
to the Romans since it was waged not merely against Spaniards, but against
other Romans and Sertorius. He had been chosen governor of Spain while he
was coöperating with Carbo against Sulla; and after taking the city
of Suessa during the armistice he fled and assumed his prætorship.
He had an army from Italy itself and he raised another from the
Celtiberians, and drove out of Spain the former prætors, who, in
order to favor Sulla, refused to surrender the government to him. He had
also fought nobly against Metellus, who had been sent against him by Sulla.
Having acquired a reputation for bravery he enrolled a council of 300
members from the friends who were with him, and called it the Roman Senate
in derision
of
the real one. After Sulla died, and Lepidus later, he
obtained
another army of Italians which Perpenna, the lieutenant of Lepidus, brought
to him and it was supposed that he intended to march against Italy itself,
and would have done so had not the Senate become alarmed and sent another
army and general into Spain in addition to the former ones. This general was
Pompey, who was still a young man, but renowned for his exploits in the time
of Sulla, in Africa and in Italy itself.