近西班牙
For the following year (79 BC) he was assigned the propraetorian province of Hispania Citerior. His tenure coincided with the outbreak of the Sertorian War. Quintus Sertorius, an opponent of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, had landed in Hispania Ulterior, and defeated its propraetor, Lucius Fufidius. Sertorius then took control of Hispania Ulterior while his legate and quaestor Hirtuleius marched on Domitius Calvinus in Hispania Citerior. In the meantime, the Senate decided that a more experienced commander was required. Therefore, they turned Hispania Ulterior into a proconsular province and sent the proconsul Metellus Pius as its new governor, and also gave him the command of the war against Sertorius.