Sertorius and his Spanish Legion

The story of Quintus Sertorius is a fascinating one. His first military service was under Quintus Caepio at the disastrous Battle of Arausio.  There, the Teutones and Cimbri destroyed 2 Roman armies, inflicting losses that exceeded Cannae. Sertorius was wounded in many places during the battle and still managed to swim across the Rhone to save his life.

He learned the art of war serving Gaius Marius as a Tribune.  Plutarch reports that Sertorius disguised himself in Celtic dress to spy on the Teutones and Cimbri. Subsequently, he fought at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae where Marius' destroyed the Teutones.

Sertorius was in charge of recruiting and training legions for Marius during the Social Wars and that was the start of his downfall.  Once Sulla forced Marius into exile, Sertorius ended up on the proscription list. Sertorius fled to Hispania where Roman refugees and deserters would later join him in exile. The Lusitanians hired him to fight the Romans and he cobbled together and trained an army that kept Rome at bay during the 8 year Sertorian War.  He was more than a match for Pompey, defeating his combined armies more than once. 

After inflicting terrible casualties on the Romans, Sertorius made a fateful gamble to win control of Hispania once and for all. He attacked the fortified camp of Metellus and Pompey and was thrown back with terrible losses. This was a defeat from which he would not recover. Metellus offered 100 talents and 20,000 acres of land to any Roman who killed Sertorius.  A Roman in Sertorius’ camp named Peperna led a conspiracy which culminated with the plotters falling upon their leader with daggers and swords during a banquet. Thus ended the life of one of the great men of Rome.  

For a full read at your leisure, I'd recommend:  The Sertorian War.  

For Sertorius' legion, I chose a combo of white and tan for the tunics. I'm guessing that as their equipment wore out, his men improvised or picked up gear from the Romans in the field.  All Xyston figures.  

The Sertorius Lusitanians list in Field of Glory allows you to take 8 bases of legionaries, which represents the Legionaries who served under him. You can also take your Lusitanian medium foot as drilled, which comes straight from Plutarch:

"He was also highly honored for his introducing discipline and good order amongst them, for he altered their furious savage manner of fighting, and brought them to make use of the Roman armor, taught them to keep their ranks, and observe signals and watchwards; and out of a confused number of thieves and robbers he constituted a regular, well-disciplined army. He bestowed silver and gold upon them liberally to gild and adorn their helmets, he had their shields worked with various figures and designs, he brought them into the mode of wearing flowered and embroidered cloaks and coats, and by supplying money for these purposes, and joining with them in all improvements, he won the hearts of all.  Nor were the Spaniards alone ambitious to serve him, but the Roman soldiers, also, that came out of Italy, were impatient to be under his command.... "

The Boys from Andalucia

Guess who's coming to dinner? 52 bases of scutarii medium foot. I painted two battlegroups in white tunics trimmed red to represent my "superior" scutarii and the rest got the irregular treatment.  I've always loved the red, white and black geometric shield patterns so I stuck with that.

In Field of Glory, medium foot are down -1 on morale checks when losing to cavalry or heavy foot in the open.  I've made some supersized terrain pieces in mdf to alleviate this problem.  My clubmates refer to extra large terrain pieces as pizza boxes. One large scutarii coming right up!

Massed up, they're an imposing sight.  Of course, you can go in a completely different direction and use vibrant colors for the shields.  After all, its not like an Iberian from 300 BC  is going to call you on it, although a fellow from TMP might!

Here's a bit of inspiration.  Don't look too closely but the fellow in stone isn't wearing pants!

Caetrati...now with 100% more horse!

When painting a new army, you can sometimes find yourself  "in the weeds." So it was with these figures.  I ordered Xyston Caetrati foot and much to my surprise, I received mounted Caetrati. These figures appear to be out of production as I can't find them on eBay or Xyston.  Since they were perfect for the light horse units in my Iberian army, I considered myself lucky and buffed these figures out with the only Xyston Spanish light horse in production, Caetrati pillion riders.

I thought to myself, what's a pillion rider?  It's an extra rider on horse. The idea of two warriors fighting atop one horse seemed odd to me, even with the limited cavalry of the Iberians.  I posted on TPM and discovered the pillion rider figures were inspired by accounts of Caetrati riding double with horsemen and dismounting to fight. The historian Strabo wrote "they ride double on horseback, though in the time of battle one of the two fights on foot."  That makes sense.  Otherwise, a well-place pilum could score a two-for-one hit. Ouch - Ouch!

In keeping with my limited color palette, I used white and tan for the tunics.  I did splurge on the decorative trim on the ponies as I just couldn't help myself!

Last up today are slingers for my Iberian army.  I used a single color for the tunics and I think it is easy on the eyes.  Great detail and lively poses by Xyston.