Marcus Perperna (or Perpenna) Veiento (also, incorrectly, Vento;[1] died 72 BC) was a Roman aristocrat, statesman and general.
After Sulla's death he was recalled by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the consul of 78 BC, whom he joined in rebellion against the Sullan faction.
Lepidus died while on Sardinia - by some accounts of a broken heart - brought on not by his failed bit for power but by the accidental discovery that his wife had been unfaithful to him.
After he found out Pompey and a very large army had been sent to defeat him (on route to the Iberian Peninsula and the war against Sertorius) he decided to take his forces to Hispania.
[6] He sent Perperna with 20,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry to join Gaius Herennius (one of Sertorius' legates) in the territory of the Ilercavones, with instructions to guard the crossing of the lower Ebro and try and lure Pompey into an ambush.
[7] At the beginning of the campaigning season of 75 BC Perperna, Herennius and their army were defeated by Pompey in a bloody battle near Valentia.
[8] After the Valentia disaster Sertorius himself returned to the eastern theatre (he had been in the west of the Iberian Peninsula campaigning against Metellus) to take command of the fight against Pompey.
[10] In 74 BC, while Sertorius focused his attention on defending his allies in celtiberia, Perperna circumvented the Romans operating in the interior and marched to the Iberian westcoast where he took the city of Portus Cale.
While under most circumstances, any festivities to which Sertorius was invited were conducted with great propriety, this particular feast was vulgar, designed to offend the skillful general.
[13] Perperna managed to retain control of some of the Roman renegades who had followed Sertorius, but he needed a quick victory to gain his people's trust.
He attacked, slaughtering the enemy to his front and on both flanks[15]Pompey lured Perperna's army into his ambush using 10 cohorts as bait.
Perperna attempted to plead for his life, offering to give Pompey all of Sertorius' correspondence, which would document contacts with the highest levels of Roman government and society.