 The ongoing Sertorian threat forced the government in Rome into taking drastic measures; they agreed that the new governor of Hispania Citerior should get a proconsular command and that he should be sent out with a sizeable army to support Metellus's struggle against Sertorius and his rebels.In 76 BC the Senate accepted a proposal by Lucius Marcius Philippus to send his son-in-law Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey), who had never been a magistrate, on behalf of the consuls (both of whom had refused the command themselves).Pompey recruited an army of 30,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, its size evidence of the seriousness of the threat presented by Sertorius, and marched to Hispania.