the disturbance.  Then a wine-cup was dashed on the floor; Perpenna had given the concerted sign.  Marcus Antonius, Sertorius’ neighbour at table, dealt the first blow against him, and when Sertorius turned round and attempted to rise, the assassin flung himself upon him and held him down till the other guests at table, all of them implicated in the conspiracy, threw themselves on the struggling pair, and stabbed he defenceless general while his arms were pinioned (682).  With him died his faithful attendants.  So ended one of the greatest men, if not the very greatest man, that Rome had hitherto produced—­ a man who under more fortunate circumstances would perhaps have become the regenerator of his country—­by the treason of the wretched band of emigrants whom he was condemned to lead against his native land.  History loves not the Coriolani; nor has she made any exception even in the case of this the most magnanimous, most gifted, most deserving to be regretted of them all.

Perpenna Succeeds Sertorius

The murderers thought to succeed to the heritage of the murdered.  After the death of Sertorius, Perpenna, as the highest among the Roman officers of the Spanish army, laid claim to the chief command.  The army submitted, but with mistrust and reluctance.  However men had murmured against Sertorius in his lifetime, death reinstated the hero in his rights, and vehement was the indignation of the soldiers when, on the publication of his testament, the name of Perpenna was read forth among the heirs.  A part of the soldiers, especially the Lusitanians, dispersed; the remainder had a presentiment that with the death of Sertorius their spirit and their fortune had departed.

Pompeius Puts an End to the Insurrection

Accordingly, at the first encounter with Pompeius, the wretchedly led and despondent ranks of the insurgents were utterly broken, and Perpenna, among other officers, was taken prisoner.  The wretch sought to purchase his life by delivering up the correspondence of Sertorius, which would have compromised numerous men of standing in Italy; but Pompeius ordered the papers to be burnt unread, and handed him, as well as the other chiefs of the insurgents, overto the executioner.  The emigrants who had escaped dispersed; and most of them went into the Mauretanian deserts or joined the pirates.  Soon afterwards the Plotian law, which was zealously supported by the young Caesar in particular, opened up to a portion of them the opportunity of returning home; but all those who had taken part in the murder of Sertorius, with but a single exception, died a violent death.  Osca, and most of the towns which had still adhered to Sertorius in Hither Spain, now voluntarily opened their gates to Pompeius; Uxama (Osma), Clunia, and Calagurris alone had to be reduced by force.  The two provinces were regulated anew; in the Further province, Metellus raised the annual tribute of the most guilty communities; in the Hither,