Lucius Cornelius Sulla lands at Dyrrachium in Illyria in the spring of 87 BCE.

Asia is occupied by the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus under the command of Archelaus.

Sulla’s first target is Athens, ruled by a Mithridatic puppet; the tyrant Aristion.

Sulla moves southeast, picking up supplies and reinforcements as he goes.

His chief of staff is Lucullus, who has gone ahead of him to scout the way and negotiate with Bruttius Sura, the existing Roman commander in Greece.

Sura after speaking with Lucullus hands over the command of his troops to Sulla.

Ambassadors from all the major cities of Greece (except Athens) meet at Chaeronea with Sulla, who impresses on them Rome's determination to drive Mithridates from Greece and Asia Province.

Sulla now advances on Athens.

En route to Athens, Sulla sacks the famous Asclepian healing sanctuary at Epidaurus.

Most of Greece is in Sulla's power by the spring of 87 iBCE.

On arrival to Attica, Sulla throws up siege works encompassing not only Athens but also the port of Piraeus.

Archelaus at this time has command of the sea, so Sulla sends Lucullus to raise a fleet from the remaining Roman allies in the eastern Mediterranean.

His first objective is Piraeus, as without it Athens cannot be resupplied.

Huge earthworks are raised, isolating Athens and its port from the land side.

Sulla needs wood, so he cuts down everything, including the sacred groves of Greece, up to one hundred miles from Athens.

When more money is needed he “borrows” from temples and Sibyls alike.

The currency minted from this treasure is to remain in circulation for centuries and prized for its quality.

Despite the complete encirclement of Athens and its port, and several attempts by Archelaus to raise the siege, a stalemate seems to have developed.

Sulla, however, patiently bides his time.

Soon Sulla's camp is to fill with refugees from Rome, fleeing the massacres of Marius and Cinna.

These also include his wife and children, as well as those of the Optimate party who had not been killed.

Athens is by now starving, and the grain price is at famine levels.

The population inside the city is reduced to eating shoe leather and grass.

A delegation from Athens is sent to treat with Sulla, but instead of serious negotiations they expound on the glory of their city.

Sulla sends them away saying: “I was sent to Athens, not to take lessons, but to reduce rebels to obedience.”

Sulla, informed by his spies that Aristion is neglecting the Heptachalcum (part of the city wall), immediately sends sappers to undermine the wall.

Nine hundred feet of wall is brought down between the Sacred and Piraeic gates on the southwest side of the city.

A midnight sack of Athens begins, and Sulla, after the taunts of Aristion, is not in a mood to be magnanimous.

Blood is said to have literally flowed in the streets; it is only after the entreaties of a couple of his Greek friends (Midias and Calliphon) and the pleas of the Roman Senators in his camp that Sulla decides enough is enough.

The capture is accompanied by great slaughter and much destruction of private houses, but the only public building to be destroyed is the Odeum of Pericles, burned by the defenders lest the enemy use its timbers.

Sulla now concentrates his forces on the Port of Piraeus, and Archelaus, seeing his hopeless situation, withdraws to the citadel and then abandons the port to join up with his forces under the command of Taxiles.

Sulla, not yet having a fleet, is powerless to prevent Archelaus’ escape.

Before leaving Athens, Sulla burns the port to the ground, then advances into Boeotia to take on Archelaus's armies and remove them from Greece.

The Pontic commander Archelaus in 86 BCE lands in Boeotia and is met by Sulla near Chaeronea.

Appian tells us Archelaus had Thracian, Pontic, Scythian, Cappadocian, Bithynian, Galatian, and Phrygian troops, numbering near one hundred and twenty thousand.

Each nationality is commanded by their own general, all of whom answer to Archelaus as commander-in-chief.

Sulla's forces consists of several legions of Roman troops, as well as Greeks who have defected to the Roman side.

They number about forty thousand.

Archelaus is defeated by Sulla in the ensuing battle.

The Mithridatic forces fleeing back towards their cam, completely disordered by the uneven terrain of their path of retreat are easily slain.

Appian claims that Archelaus blocked his soldiers' entry into the camp and forced them to turn and face the Romans.

They did so, but could not withstand the Roman impetus.

Appian and Plutarch claim that only ten thousand of the enemy forces survived and escaped to the nearby town.

They add that fourteen Romans were not accounted for at the end of the battle, two of which returned at nightfall, making the Roman casualty count an unbelievable twelve soldiers.

While these figures are obviously inaccurate, as the close range nature of fighting between the infantry forces must have caused heavier Roman losses, the Pontic forces undoubtedly suffered disproportionately heavier casualties.

Sulla sets out for Thessaly after his victory over Archelaus at Chaeronea to meet the consul Flaccus coming from Italy (although Sulla is unaware he had been sent to attack him, not to join with him).

On the way, he hears reports that Dorylaeus has landed at Chalcis with a sizable fleet transporting eighty thousand of Mithridates' best troops to reinforce Archelaus.

Dorylaeus wants to tempt Sulla to fight as soon as possible, and Sulla cooperates by abruptly turning around to meet this new threat.

After a skirmish with Sulla's troops, Dorylaeus begins to rethink the idea of giving battle and instead promotes a strategy to wear the enemy down.

On the other hand, Archelaus' confidence is raised by the flat terrain around their camp at Orchomenos, which favors their superior cavalry.

Archelaus had let his men relax after taking their positions, while Sulla had set his men to work building trenches that he hopes will cut Archelaus' cavalry off from the plains and move the fighting to more boggy areas.

Archelaus, recognizing Sulla's strategy, launches several attacks on the workers and the soldiers sent to protect them.

In one of these, Archelaus' stepson Diogenese distinguishes himself in a valiant attack where he dies gloriously.

In Archelaus' final attack, Sulla routs his troops and carries his camp.

Plutarch says that so many men died that the marshes ran with blood, and almost two hundred years later weapons will still be found sticking out of the marshes.

After the battle, Sulla destroys three Boeotian towns: Anthedon, Darymna, and Halae.

Later, upon meeting fisherman from Halae who gift him fish, Sulla tells them he is surprised there are any of them left, but lets them go and tells them not to worry.

As a result of this incident, the people of Halae are inspired to repopulate their town.

While Sulla is away fighting Mithridates, Rome is suffering from civil disorder at the hands of the two consuls of 85 BCE, Cinna and Carbo, prompting eminent members of society to flee to Sulla's camp, including his wife Metella and their children.

Sulla tries to use his victory at the Battle of Orchomenos to bring about peace with Mithridates so that he can return home, and though Sulla's peace terms are not immediately accepted, Archelaus eventually manages to broker a peace between Sulla and Mithridates.

Fimbria, his troops having defected to Sulla (originally the troops of Flaccus, against whom Fimbria had led a revolt), commits suicide.

Sulla is able to wrap up his affairs in Greece and Asia Minor, and return to Italy.