[42] Four Olympiads later - that is, about the 150th Olympiad - many Spanish tribes, having insufficient land, including the Lusones and others who dwelt along the river Iberus, revolted from the Roman rule. These being overcome in battle by the consul Fulvius Flaccus, the greater part of them scattered among their towns. The rest, being destitute of land and living a vagabond life, collected at Complega, a city newly built and fortified, and which had grown rapidly. Sallying out from this place they demanded that Flaccus should deliver to each of them a cloak, a horse, and a sword as recompense for their dead in the late war, and take himself out of Spain or suffer the consequences. Flaccus replied that he would bring them plenty of cloaks, and following closely after their messengers, he encamped before the city. Far from making good their threats, they took to their heels, plundering the neighboring barbarians on the road. These people wore a thick outer garment with a double fold which they fastened with a clasp after the manner of the military cloak, and they called it the sagum.

[43] Flaccus was succeeded in the command by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, at which time the city of Caravis, which was in alliance with Rome, was besieged by 20,000 Celtiberians. As it was reported that the place was about to be taken Gracchus hastened all the more to relieve it. He could but circle about the besiegers, and had no means of communicating to the town his own nearness.

Cominius, a prefect of horse, having considered the matter carefully and having communicated his plan to Gracchus, donned a Spanish sagum and secretly mingled with the enemy's foragers. In this way he gained entrance to their camp as a Spaniard, and passed through it into Caravis and told the people that Gracchus was approaching. Wherefore they endured the siege patiently and were saved, for Gracchus arrived three days later, and the besiegers fled.

About the same time the inhabitants of Complega, to the number of 20,000, came to Gracchus' camp in the guise of petitioners bearing olive branches, and when they arrived they attacked him unexpectedly, and threw everything into confusion. Gracchus adroitly abandoned his camp to them and simulated flight; then suddenly turning he fell upon them while they were plundering, killed most of them, and captured Complega and the surrounding country.

Then he divided the land among the poor and settled them on it, and made carefully defined treaties with all the tribes, binding them to be the friends of Rome, and giving and receiving oaths to that effect. These treaties were often longed for in the subsequent wars. In this way Gracchus became celebrated both in Spain and in Rome, and was awarded a splendid triumph.