e calling for
Pompeius, he did not hesitate what course to take, but attaching
himself to the optimates,[220] he was appointed commander of a force
to oppose Lepidus, who had already stirred up a large part of Italy
and held with an army under the command of Brutus, Gaul within the
Alps. Now Pompeius easily defeated the rest whom he attacked, but at
Mutina[221] in Gaul he sat down for some time opposite to Brutus,
while Lepidus having hurried on to Rome and posted himself before the
walls was demanding a second consulship and terrifying the citizens
with a numerous army. But the alarm was ended by a letter from
Pompeius, who had brought the war to a fortunate issue without a
battle. For Brutus, whether it was that he gave up his force himself
or was betrayed by his army changing sides, surrendered his person to
Pompeius and with some horsemen as an escort retired to one of the
small towns near the Padus, where after the interval of a single day
he was put to death by Geminius, whom Pompeius sent to him; and
Pompeius was much blamed for this. For at the very commencement of the
affair of the army changing sides, he wrote to the Senate that
Brutus[222] had voluntarily surrendered, and he then sent another
letter in which he criminated the man after he was put to death. This
Brutus was the father of the Brutus who together with Cassius killed
Caesar, a man who neither fought nor died like his father, as is told
in his Life. As soon as Lepidus was driven from Italy, he made his
escape into Sardinia, where he fell sick and died of vexation, not at
the state of affairs, as they say, but from finding some writing by
which he discovered that his wife had committed adultery.

XVII. But a general, Sertorius,[223] who in no respect resembled
Lepidus, was in possession of Iberia and was hovering over the other
Romans, a formidable adversary; for the civil wars had concentrated
themselves as in a final disease in this one man, who had already
destroyed many of the inferior commanders, and was then engaged with
Metellus Pius, who was indeed a distinguished soldier and of great
military ability, but owing to old age was considered to be following
up the opportunities of war somewhat tardily, and was anticipated in
his plans by the quickness and rapidity of Sertorius, who attacked him
at all hazards and somewhat in robber fashion, and by his ambuscades
and circuitous movements confounded a man well practised in regular
battles and use