Sertorius

Warfare in Spain kept emissions consistently low between 108 to 92 BC, and emissions dropped even further after 80 BC, due to the Sertorian War, when a coalition of Romans and Iberians, led by the general Quintus Sertorius, fought against a regime established by Sulla, the statesman who established himself as the Republic’s first dictator in a century.

In the Big Barn, Joseph and I tore up three bales and filled the bins—I told him you have to fill the bin in the Small Barn for Quintus Sertorius first because he’s an old horse and doesn’t like to wait—and then we went back to the cows in the tie-up to milk.

The pond had broken panes of ice on the edges, enough to annoy the geese, and from the Small Barn you could hear Quintus Sertorius at his grain, snorting in his bin.

It was the last time we went outside for a few days, except when we went out to the Small Barn for Quintus Sertorius and the Big Barn to milk and to lift weights, wearing just about everything warm that we owned—including the long underwear.

And when we carried bales of hay to Quintus Sertorius, Joseph talked about Madeleine.