Sertorius - Anti-Sulla Rebellion in Spain DOCUMENTARY

[Music] the events of the 1st century bc shook the roman republic to its foundations and led to the formation of the empire many of these events such as caesar's crossing of the rubicon are well known but there are ones that are overlooked for almost a decade a bitter guerrilla war was fought in the province of hispania where a rebellious roman governor battled for survival against the full might of rome welcome to our video on sartorius and the satorian war shout outs to imperator rome and paradox interactive for sponsoring this video the latest 1.3 update is now live and it brings many new features and major changes to the game there is now greater attention given to the characters as the experience system makes them more important while fewer major families to track means that each of them are more crucial the national mission trees are reworked to help guide your actions the free punic wars content pack fleshes out the roman and carthaginian factions even more ten unique roman missions will be essential in the conquest of italy the free pack also adds the numidian army model carthaginian ship model and three new music tracks for a week between the 3rd and 8th of december this excellent game with endless replayability will be free to play on steam support our channel and play imperative rome for free by clicking the link in the description [Music] born in subinium in 123 to a family of minor nobles quintus satorius was raised by his widowed mother raya whom plutarch describes him as being excessively fond of after a typical roman education in rhetoric martial skills horse riding and the greek epics sartorius far too ambitious to remain a provincial aristocrat travelled to rome and entered public life his unique style of rhetoric elicited a comment from the great orator cicero who called sartorius the roughest and readiest of all the illiterate ranters he'd ever heard probably not seeing himself as an orator prompted the inexperienced sartorius to embark on the most respected roman career path in the legions which were at the moment facing the kimbri threat serving under quintus sivilius capio satorius was one of the few survivors of the disastrous battle of varacio sartorius pledged his service to marius a decision which charted the course of his life he volunteered to serve as a spy dressing as a kimbri warrior learning their tongue and joining their attack on hispania a place with which he was to become intimately familiar sartorius slipped back to marius when the kimbri returned to italy in 102 bc and was rewarded for his valiant efforts he probably fought with the legions at aquasexte and vercolet seeing the end of the kimbri threat he continued his service with the legions in hispania and then was a quester the financial supervisor in sisalpine gaul in 91 bc the social war between the romans and their italic allies broke out at first sartorius used his position to supply men and materiel from his province but then marched south to fight in person the early 30s rising star lost an eye in the vicious fighting and when the war was won in 88 bc emerged as a hero in rome however the rivalry between marius and sulla stymied the marian allied sartorius's bid for election to the tribunate in the sullen civil wars that followed we witnessed sartorius loyalty straightforwardness and mercilessness he repeatedly questioned his commander's methods such as the employment of a slave army in retaking rome one night when this force was encamped in a theater sartorius had his regular legionaries surround the camp and slay them using javelins the new marion leadership and sartorius despised each other so in 83 bc sartorius set out for hispania to establish a marian power base there the province's fragmented geography was its strength hispania was dominated by a huge central plateau surrounded by mountains serving as strategic gateways to this otherwise almost impenetrable iberian interior are five river valleys on the atlantic coast and three on the mediterranean and this facilitated a divided political situation when sartorius arrived around 40 tribes jostled for position and ward with one another hemming the roman dominated regions to the mediterranean seaboard these tribes comprised three main groups iberians inhabiting the eastern coastal region at quitani living in the distant northwest and a large assortment of mixed kel tiberian invaders occupying the central plateau the roman territory was divided between hispania cateria nearer spain and hispania ulteria further spain sartorius was appointed the proprietor of these provinces by marius he needed to deal with untamed mountain tribes who still held sway in the pyrenees and aiming to save time sartorius bribed them telling his outraged companions that if a man has a lot to do nothing is more precious than time after getting through the treacherous mountains he set to solidifying his power base with help from the warlike locals sartorius addressed the rampant excesses of previous roman administrations of hispania lowered taxes and befriended or gradually endeared himself to the locals meanwhile the civil war raged on in italy refugees trickled into sartorius's court informing him that sulla had won and then marched into rome brutally purging his enemies satorius of course was on the prescription lists and after neues pompey subdued a marian remnant in africa he stood alone in hispania against the sullen regime he prepared for the coming storm in 81 bc salah sent an army towards iberia by land knowing that winter blocked any other route of approach sartorius sent a legion under julius salinator to fortify the pyrenees mountain passes it was a shrewd defensive move and it made direct assault impossible but salinator was eventually betrayed by a subordinate killed allowing salah's army to penetrate deep into hispania facing overwhelming odds and almost certain defeat sartorius and his 3000 remaining troops fled to mauritania early in the spring of 80 bc the moorish tribes didn't allow the renegades to move in and sartorius advised by sicilian pirates attacks the balearic islands where he was defeated in a naval battle by one of sulla's spanish governors after a painstaking limp west to recover at the mouth of the batus river sartorius finally set himself up in mauritania properly dislodging a hostile local king easily absorbing a sullen army sent to deal with him and ruling autonomously for a few months the local population believed that the giant corpse of antius son of poseidon and gaia was buried at a certain place in this small kingdom one day he went to see for himself and had the tomb excavated and after supposedly witnessing the demigods corpse performed sacrifices and promoted the local traditions regarding the two it shows just how good sartorius was and would be when it came to integrating himself with his foreign subject peoples his african kingdom was defensible and prosperous but events across the straits would pull sartorius in salah's new governor for phidias was oppressing the locals and invading their territory the lusitanians weren't going to take it and invited sartorius to lead their forces after landing near gibraltar in 80 bc and meeting up with his new allies he marched against ferphidius sartorius was cunning and managed to lure phidias into a swampy estuary before slaughtering his army the sullens lost 2 000 men and the entirety of hispania sartorius then dispatched generals to mop up the remaining sullens in the north and began planning it was a big job he had to remain a firmly roman governor rather than an iberian chieftain if clemency was ever going to be possible but he also required the extensive assistance of local tribes in order to defend himself before it could be counted on during this time we begin to get a glimpse of sartorius's complex character through the surviving sources he seems to have been an industrious charismatic leader never fearful or excessively indulgent notably ensuing drunkenness according to plutarch he convinced many that he was a mild soul best suited to quiet life whose enemies had driven him to take up arms in his own defense and practically forced him against his will to become a soldier his tendency to give generous gifts practice gentle governance and his reciprocity made satorius incredibly popular among the local tribes while his tendency to share their burdens engendered intense loyalty with the troops during the early part of his dominion over hispania a seemingly mundane event shows us how expertly satorius made use of anything to ingratiate himself with the iberian tribes a lowly hunter known as spanish managed to capture an unusual white fawn out in the wilderness knowing that sartorius had a habit of graciously accepting and then repaying such gifts he took it to him soon the creature became quite tame not minding the chaos of army camp life or the bustling city crowds seeing an opportunity satorius proclaimed that the thorn had been sent down to him by the goddess diana and routinely revealed hidden information to him when he received covert intelligence that an enemy was marching against him for example he would inform the tribes that it was instead diana who had given him the information sartorius's people began to believe they were being guided by godly power rather than the will of mortal foreigners and that made them all the more willing to go along with what their governor was doing rebellious hispania would need all the help it could get as sulla's replacement governor was on his way with an army this was quintus carcilius mattelus pierce consul for atbc who hated the marians sartorius began drilling his troops over winter the tribes especially the lusitanians were keen to face the legions but their commander realized that trying to make his troops into inferior copies of the romans would just lead to defeat so he adapted making use of their natural strengths when sartorius words didn't convince his allies he resorted to an object's lesson to convince them he had two horses brought before the tribal council one a large powerful steed and the other a smaller weaker pony then he asked an elderly man to pluck out the hairs of the strong mount's tail one hair at a time and a young strong man to rip out the tail by force the weaker older man accomplished his task of retrieving the hairs while the younger man only succeeded in exhausting himself sartorius then explained that the roman army was much like the tale of a horse confront the legions all at once and victory would be impossible but pick them apart piecemeal and they can be overcome this argument convinced the tribes and they quickly began to train learning roman style formations signals and tactics transforming individuals into a true army when metellus finally entered hispania in 79 bc the satorian commanders were ready for him metellus's army began to suffer devastating harassment making foraging and scouting lethal proving himself a genius in guerrilla warfare and a peerless leader of men at one point the middle-aged sartorius challenged his opponent to single combat mattelus declined and forever after sartorius would derisively call him the old woman this irregular warfare finally ground the roman campaign to a halt when a year after it began news came from rome that sulla had passed away with his iron-fisted unity gone mattelus chose to take a passive approach sartorius wasn't as idle and used the free hand to subdue more iberian tribes in the interior who hadn't submitted yet the gains increased the amount of spanish silver that flowed into his treasury and allowed him to prepare for the resumption of war resume it did in 76 bc in the form of future triumvir neus pompey who chased a rebellious roman commander called popena into hispania the latter had been forced to join up with sartorius by his anxious soldiers the confident and careless pompey threw his veteran legions onto the iberian peninsula but he too was quickly outmatched by the lightly armored and mobile satorian troops within just a year two entire legions of pompey's army had been shredded by sartorius and his brilliant generalship however we don't just get an impression of sartorius military genius but also his sense of honor and justice when they captured loron in 76 bc a notoriously savage cohort of popena's newly arrived roman legions began committing rapes in a conquered city sartorius unwilling to tolerate this horrific conduct by his own troops had the entire unit executed they served as an example no further such incidents are known to have occurred a climactic battle occurred in 75 bc at the surco river when sartorius saw an opportunity to eliminate pompey before metellus could intervene he sent popena back to delay metellus and then engaged with pompey about evenly matched in numbers each general lined up on their own right wing and charged at the opposing flank pompey fought a jewel against a giant iberian infantryman and his wing began to push the sartorians back sartorius learned about this threat and reacted swiftly riding over to his left rallying those whose morale was faltering and pushing forward those who remained stalwart the pompeian right collapsed and routed a turn of events which seems to have taken pompey himself by surprise he escaped only at the very last moment by dismounting from his ornately clad steed after tidying up the other wing the battle ended and night fell pompey was in a terrible position and almost certainly would have been destroyed the next morning however mattellus arrived at dawn having bested popena and saved pompey from utter disaster in the nick of time sartorius knew that he had lost a great chance to end one of his rivals and stated scornfully if the old woman had not made an appearance i'd have thrashed the boy and packed him off to rome the great sartorian leader was embarrassing both mattelus and pompey but he couldn't be everywhere at once so gradually the war began to turn and rome's seemingly infinite resources began to have their effect in addition to warfare romanization of the wild and unconquered barbarians was also on sartorius agenda his methods of integrating and transitioning the population would as dr philip matajek points out become standard procedure in the later republican and imperial eras sartorius was a true pioneer who impacted centuries of world history he introduced roman equipment to the iberian tribal leadership by liberally distributing gifts of legionary style helmets glady tunics and cloaks for service and loyalty as they embraced these replacements with enthusiasm so did their people to promote a sense of iberian unity sartorius moved his capital to oscar iberian warrior leaders made up his retinue and were thus romanized and sartorius did the same for their children by setting up an academy in oscar much like the one philip ii of macedon established impella for the offspring of his nobility a fine greek and roman education was given here and sartorius promised that it would lead to administrative positions and power for the educated scions in time these children were also de facto hostages to ensure that the chieftains continued being loyal to sartorius in the meantime he also looked after the romans who had come to him as refugees forming a senate and appointing cases and craters from among them it was quickly becoming a roam outside of rome and it was clear that despite his alienation from his mother country sartorius was a fervent advocate of roman values despite his military genius and overtures to mithridates in the east roman reinforcements kept coming his enemies got better and his allies proved not equal to the task at hand popena blundered into several defeats and lost almost all of his own legionaries as sartorian fortunes gradually worsened and his territory was rolled back mattelus offered a generous reward of 100 talents and amnesty to any traitor who killed his enemy the romans with sartorius began to scheme and plot popena foremost among them hearing about this through his phenomenal intelligence network sartorius according to livy changed into a savage and dissolute man succumbing to vice and brutality and abandoning himself to wine women and song many of the children at his academy were enslaved or executed as punishment for their tribe's crimes increasing numbers of them were slowly making deals with metellus naturally this led more people to conspire as well popena attending one of the many austere banquets hosted by his nominal master assassinated sartorius with a hidden sword along with a group of conspirators in 72 bc the satorian war largely ended with the death of sartorius himself and the victorious pompey captured and executed popena the tribes went back to being a nuisance for rome but sartorius played a large role in bringing hispania into the roman fold and the provinces would remain crucial for the roman economy for the next five centuries we always have more stories to tell so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description this is the kings and generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 632,477

Rating: 4.9506888 out of 5

Keywords: roman empire, roman republic, roman history, ancient rome, roman army, third servile war, kings and generals, julius caesar, spartacus, pompey, bbc documentary, full documentary, rome, legion, legionary, crixus, ancient battles, roman battles, decisive battles, Eunus, Athenion, history lesson, history channel, Sertorius, Sulla, Marius, Spain, guerilla war, hispania, roman spain, history of spain, spanish history, history documentary, animated historical documentary, ancient history

Id: q5kleX6F-cM

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019