The Middle East: 105–94 BCE

Many of those in a position of power, who had not yet taken a clear side, now choose to support Sulla.

The first of these is Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius, who governs Africa.

The old enemy of Marius, and assuredly of Cinna as well, leads an open revolt against the Marian forces in Africa.

Additional help comes from Picenum and Spain.

Two of the three future triumvirs join Sulla's cause in his bid to take control.

Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had been forced by Cinna's proscription to flee to Hispania in 84, following two years of exile, marches to Rome with an army, his chief concern being the restoration of his family's prestige.

The young son of Pompeius Strabo (the butcher of Asculum during the Social War), raises an army of his own from among his father's veterans and throws his lot in with Sulla.

Pompey, at the age of twenty-three and never having held a Senatorial office, forces himself into the political scene with an army at his back.

Regardless, the war continues, with Asiagenus raising another army in defense.

This time he moves after Pompey, but once again, his army abandons him and goes over to the enemy.

As a result, desperation follows in Rome as the year 83 comes to a close.

The Senate reelects Cinna's old co-Consul, Papirius Carbo, to his third term, and Gaius Marius the Younger, the twenty-six-year-old son of the great general, to his first.

Hoping to inspire Marian supporters throughout the Roman world, recruiting begins in earnest among the Italian tribes who had always been loyal to Marius.

In addition, possible Sullan supporters are murdered.

The urban praetor L. Junius Brutus Damasippus leads a slaughter of those Senators who seem to lean towards the invading forces, yet one more incident of murder in a growing spiral of violence as a political tool in the late Republic.

The newly elected Roman consuls, L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus Asiagenus and C. Norbanus, levy and prepare armies of their own to stop Sulla and protect the Republican government.

Norbanus marches first with the intention of blocking a Sullan advance at Canusium.

Seriously defeated, …

…Norbanus is forced to retreat to Capua where there is no respite.

Sulla follows his defeated adversary and wins another victory in a very short time.

Meanwhile, …

…Asiagenus is also on the march south with an army of his own.

Asiagenus or his army, however, seem to have little motivation to fight.

At the town of Teanum Sidicinum, Sulla and Asiagenus meet face to face to negotiate and Asiagenus surrenders without a fight.

The army sent to stop Sulla wavers in the face of battle against experienced veterans, and certainly along with the prodding of Sulla's operatives, gives up the cause, going over to Sulla's side as a result.

Left without an army, Asiagenus has little choice but to cooperate and later writings of Cicero suggest that the two men actually discussed many matters regarding Roman government and the Constitution.

Sulla lets Asiagenus leave the camp, firmly believing him to be a supporter.

He is possibly expected to deliver terms to the Senate but immediately rescinds any thought of supporting Sulla upon being set free.

Sulla later makes it publicly known that not only will Asiagenus suffer for opposing him, but that any man who continues to oppose him after this betrayal will suffer bitter consequences.

With Sulla's three quick victories, though, the situation begins to rapidly turn in his favor.

Young Marius is elected to the consulship for 82 BCE in a political move by Carbo, his consular colleague, to drum up popular support and enthusiasm for the war against Sulla; Marius is much too young to be a legally elected consul.

Two talented and better-qualified men among the Marian faction, his cousin Marius Gratidianus and Quintus Sertorius, are passed over in favor of the younger Marius's symbolic value.

However, many of the old veterans from the elder Marius’s former armies will come out of retirement and flock to the younger Marius’s side, and by the battle of Sacriportus, his army will number eighty-five cohorts.

Carbo opens the campaign year of 82 BCE by taking his forces to the north to oppose Pompey while Marius moves against Sulla in the south.

Carbo fights an indecisive engagement with Sulla near Clusium, but ...

…he is defeated with great loss in an attack on the camp of Sulla's general, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, near Faventia.

Attempts to defeat Pompey fail; Metellus and his African forces, along with Pompey, secure northern Italy for Sulla.

In the south, young Marius gathers a large host of Samnites who assuredly would lose influence with the anti-popular Sulla in charge of Rome.

Marius meets Sulla at Sacriportus and the two forces engage in a long and desperate battle.

In the end, many of Marius' men switch sides over to Sulla and he has no choice but to retreat with around seven thousand surviving troops, along with the treasury of the Capitoline temple, to …