The battle was fought on the banks of the river Sucro near a town bearing the same name (present day Albalat de la Ribera).

It ended indecisively: with Sertorius winning a tactical victory but having to withdraw because Pompey's colleague Metellus and his army were approaching.

In 88 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla marched his legions on Rome, starting a series of civil wars.

[3] Unfortunately his faction lost the war in Italy right after his departure and in 81 BC Sulla sent Gaius Annius Luscus with several legions to take the Iberian provinces from Sertorius.

Threatened by Sertorius' success the Senate in Rome upgraded Hispania Ulterior to a proconsular province and sent the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius with a large army to fight him.

[8] In 75 BC Sertorius decided to take on Metellus and leave the battered Pompey to his legates Perpenna and Gaius Herennius.

Sertorius, realizing the danger his army was in, turned over command of fighting Afranius to one of his subordinates and rode over to save his left wing.

He was saved by his horse, not because it carried him to safety but because Sertorius' troops stopped to capture the prized abandoned equine apparition instead of going after its owner.

His bitter comment has been preserved by Plutarch: If the old woman had not made an appearance, I'd have trashed the boy and packed him off to Rome.

[14]Despite knocking Pompey out of the battle, Sertorius’ army had suffered a great number of casualties and when Metellus arrived he would be outnumbered.