In 82 BC, during Sulla's civil war, Sertorius left Italy for his assigned propraetorian province in Hispania.
[3] Unfortunately, his faction, the Marians, 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.
He had brought 2,600 Romans soldiers (mainly veterans from the Social and Civil Wars) and 700 North African adventurers and mercenaries.
Sertorius was an active commander and decided not to wait for Fufidius, but marched his little army east.
Everything favoured his enemies more than his own side[6]Fufidius lost two thousand men, and the greater part of further Hispania along with them.
[2] Sertorius' victory marked the start of Sertorian war which would ravage the Iberian Peninsula for the next eight years.