How a Renegade General Humiliated Pompey the Great Before the Walls of Lauron
In 76 BC, the rising star of Rome, Pompey, arrived in Hispania to crush the rebel Quintus Sertorius. Confident of victory, Pompey invited the citizens of Lauron to watch his triumph. Instead, he was forced to stand idle as his own legions were systematically dismantled before his eyes.
The Battle of Lauron occurred during the Sertorian War, a conflict born from the chaos of Rome's civil wars. Quintus Sertorius, a former Marian commander, had established a power base in Hispania after being expelled from the region by Sullan forces. By 76 BC, the Roman Senate dispatched Pompey with a massive army to assist the proconsul Metellus Pius in suppressing the rebellion. Pompey, commanding 30,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, sought a swift victory to bolster his political standing in Rome.
Sertorius, a master of unconventional warfare, anticipated Pompey's arrival at Lauron. When Pompey positioned his forces to trap the rebels against the city walls, he invited the locals to witness the impending defeat of the insurgent leader. Sertorius, amused by the arrogance of his opponent—whom he mockingly called 'Sulla's pupil'—executed a sophisticated trap. He used his light troops to harass Pompey's foraging parties, eventually drawing them into a remote area where he had stationed a combined force of heavy and light infantry, supported by 2,000 cavalry.
The resulting ambush shattered Pompey's foragers. When Pompey sent a legion under Decimus Laelius to rescue them, the relief force was caught in a pincer movement between Sertorian infantry and circling cavalry. Pompey, watching from a distance, faced a tactical nightmare: advancing to save his men would expose his own army to a flank attack, while remaining stationary left his soldiers to be slaughtered. He chose the latter, witnessing the loss of 10,000 of his own men. Though Sertorius successfully burned Lauron, the arrival of Metellus forced him to withdraw, prolonging the war until his eventual assassination.
Source: Battle of Lauron
