CHAPTER X
Desertions to Sulla--Sertorius goes to Spain--Success of Sulla's
Generals--Continued Victories of Sulla--Murders in Rome--Young Marius
besieged in Præneste--More Desertions to Sulla--The Consul
Carbo flees to Africa--Sulla's Victory at the City Gates--Surrender of
Præneste--Suicide of Young Marius
[
85]
While Sulla and Metellus were near Teanum, L. Scipio advanced against them
with another army which was very downhearted and longed for peace. The
Sullan faction knew this and sent envoys to Scipio to negotiate, not because
they hoped or desired to come to an agreement, but because they expected to
create dissensions in Scipio's army, which was in a state of dejection. In
this they succeeded. Scipio took hostages for the armistice and marched down
to the plain. Only three from each side came to the conference, hence what
passed between them is not known. It seems that during the armistice Scipio
sent Sertorius to his colleague, Norbanus, to communicate with him
concerning the negotiation and that there was a cessation of hostilities
while they were waiting for an answer. Sertorius on his way took possession
of Suessa, which had espoused the side of Sulla, and Sulla made complaint of
this to Scipio. The latter, either because he was privy to the affair or
because he did not know what answer to make concerning the strange act of
Sertorius, sent back Sulla's hostages. His army blamed the consuls for the
unjustifiable seizure of Suessa during the armistice and for the surrender
of the hostages, who were not demanded back, and made a secret agreement
with Sulla to go over to him if he would draw nearer. This he did and
straightway they all went over en masse, so that the
consul, Scipio, and his son Lucius, alone of the whole army, were left
nonplussed in their tent, where they were captured by Sulla. That Scipio was
not aware of a conspiracy of this kind, embracing his whole army, seems to
me inexcusable in a general.
[
86]
When Sulla was unable to induce Scipio to change, he sent him away with his
son unharmed. He also sent other envoys to Norbanus at Capua to open
negotiations, either because he was apprehensive of the result (since the
greater part of Italy still adhered to the consuls), or in order to play the
same game on him that he had played on Scipio. As nobody came back and no
answer was returned (for it seems that Norbanus feared lest he should be
accused by his army in the same way that Scipio had been), Sulla again
advanced, devastating all hostile territory. Norbanus did the same thing on
other roads. Carbo hastened to the city and caused Metellus, and all the
other senators who had joined Sulla, to be decreed public enemies. It was at
this time that the Capitol was burned. Some attributed this deed to Carbo,
others to the consuls, others to somebody sent by Sulla. It was a great
mystery; nor am I able now to conjecture what caused the fire. Sertorius,
who had been some time previously chosen prætor for Spain, after
the taking of Suessa fled to his provincet and as the former
prætors refused to recognize his authority, he stirred up a great
deal of trouble for the Romans there. In the meantime the forces of the
consuls were constantly increasing from the major part of. Italy, which
still adhered to them, and also from the neighboring Gauls on the Po. Nor
was Sulla idle. He sent messengers to all parts of Italy that he could
reach, to collect troops by friendship, by fear, by money, and by promises.
In this way the remainder of the summer was consumed on both sides.
[
87]
The consuls for the following year were Papirius Carbo again and Marius, the
nephew of the great Marius, then twenty-seven years of age. At first the
winter and severe frost kept the combatants apart. At the beginning of
spring, on the banks of the river Æsis, there was a severe
engagement lasting from early morning till noon between Metellus and
Carinas, Carbo's lieutenant. Carinas was put to flight after heavy loss,
whereupon all the country thereabout seceded from the consuls to Metellus.
Carbo came up with Metellus and besieged him until he heard that Marius, the
other consul, had been defeated in a great battle near Præneste,
when he led his forces back to Ariminum. Pompey hung on his rear doing
damage. The defeat at Præneste was in this wise. Sulla captured
the town of
Setia. Marius, who was encamped near
by, drew a little farther away. When he arrived at the so-called sacred lake
(Sacriportus) he gave battle and fought bravely. When his left wing began to
give way five cohorts of foot and two of horse decided not to wait for open
defeat, but lowered their standards together and went over to Sulla. This
was the beginning of a terrible disaster to Marius. His shattered army fled
to Præneste with Sulla in hot pursuit. The Præestians
gave shelter to those who arrived first, but when Sulla pressed upon them
the gates were closed, and Marius was hauled up by ropes. There was another
great slaughter around the walls by reason of the closing of the gates.
Sulla captured a large number of prisoners. All the Samnites among them he
killed, because they were always ill-affected toward the Romans.
[
88]
About the same time Metellus gained a victory over the other army of Carbo,
and here again five cohorts, for safety's sake, deserted to Metellus during
the battle. Pompey overcame Marcius near Senæ and plundered the
town. Sulla, having shut Marius up in Præneste, drew a line of
circumvallation around the town a considerable distance from it and left the
work in charge of Lucretius Ofella, as he intended to reduce Marius by
famine, not by fighting. When Marius saw that his condition was hopeless he
hastened to put his private enemies out of the way. He wrote to Brutus, the
city prætor, to call the Senate together on some pretext or other
and to kill Publius Antistius, the other Papirius, Lucius Domitius, and
Mucius Scævola, the pontifex maximus. Of these the two first were
slain in their seats as Marius had ordered, assassins having been introduced
into the senate-house for this purpose. Domitius ran out, but was killed at
the door, and Scævola was killed a little farther away. Their
bodies were thrown into the Tiber, for it was now the custom not to bury the
slain. Sulla sent an army to Rome in detachments by different roads with
orders to seize the gates, and if they were repulsed to rendezvous at Ostia.
The towns on the way received them with fear and trembling, and the city
opened its gates to them because the people were oppressed by hunger, and
because, of present evils, they were accustomed to yield to the ones which
were immediately weighing upon them.
[
89]
When Sulla learned this he came on immediately and established his army
before the gates in the Campus Martius. He went inside himself, all of the
opposite faction having fled. Their property was at once confiscated and
exposed to public sale. Sulla summoned the people to an assembly, where he
lamented the necessity of his present doings and told them to cheer up, as
the troubles would soon be over and the government go as it ought. Having
arranged such matters as were pressing and put some of his own men in charge
of the city, he set out for Clusium, where the war was still raging. In the
meantime a body of Celtiberian horse, sent by the prætors in
Spain, had joined the consuls, and there was a cavalry fight on the banks of
the river Glanis. Sulla killed about fifty of the enemy, and then 270 of the
Celtiberian horse deserted to him, and Carbo himself killed the rest of
them, either because he was angry at the desertion of their countrymen or
because he feared similar action on their own part. About the same time
Sulla overcame another detachment of his enemies near Saturnia, and Metellus
sailed around toward Ravenna and took possession of the level, wheat-growing
country of Uritanus. Another Sullan division effected an entrance into
Neapolis by treachery in the night, killed all the inhabitants except a few
who had made their escape, and seized the triremes belonging to the city. A
severe battle was fought near Clusium between Sulla himself and Carbo,
lasting all day. Neither party had the advantage when darkness put an end to
the conflict.
[
90]
In the plain of Spoletium, Pompey and Crassus, both Sulla's officers, killed
some 3000 of Carbo's men and besieged Carinas, the opposing general. Carbo
sent reënforcements to Carinas, but Sulla learned of their
movement, laid an ambush for them, and killed about 2000 of them on the
road. Carinas escaped by night during a heavy rain-storm and thick darkness,
and although the besiegers were aware of some movement, they made no
opposition on account of the storm. Carbo sent Marcius with eight legions to
the relief of his colleague, Marius, at Præneste, having heard
that he was suffering from hunger. Pompey fell upon them from ambush in a
defile, defeated them, killed a large number, and surrounded the remainder
on a hill. Marcius made his escape, leaving his fires burning. His army
blamed him for being caught in an ambush and stirred up an angry mutiny. One
whole legion marched off under their standards to Ariminum without orders.
The rest separated and went home in squads, so that only seven cohorts
remained with their general. Marcius, having made a mess of it in this way,
returned to Carbo. However, Marcus Lamponius from Lucania, Pontius Telesinus
from Samnium, and Gutta the Capuan, with 70,000 men, hastened to deliver
Marius from the siege, but Sulla occupied a pass which was the only approach
to the place, and blocked the road. Marius now despaired of aid from
without, and built a citadel in the wide space between himself and the
enemy, within which he collected his soldiers and his engines, and from
which he attempted to force his way through the besieging army of Lucretius.
The attempt was renewed several days in different ways, but he accomplished
nothing and was again shut up in Præneste.
[
91]
About the same time Carbo and Norbanus went by a short road to attack the
camp of Metellus in Faventia just before nightfall. There was only one hour
of daylight left, and there were thick vineyards thereabout. They made their
plans for battle in hot temper and not with good judgment, hoping to take
Metellus unawares and to stampede him. But they were beaten, both the place
and the time being unfavorable for them. They became entangled in the vines,
and suffered a heavy slaughter, losing some 10,000 men. About 6000 more
deserted, and the rest were dispersed, only 1000 getting back to Ariminum in
good order. Another legion of Lucanians under Albinovanus, when they heard
of this defeat, went over to Metellus to the great chagrin of their leader.
As the latter was not able to restrain this impulse of his men, he, for the
time, returned to Norbanus. Not many days later he sent secretly to Sulla,
and having obtained a promise of safety from him, if he should accomplish
anything important, he invited Norbanus and his lieutenants, Gaius Antipater
and Flavius Fimbria (brother of the one who committed suicide in Asia),
together with such of Carbo's lieutenants as were then present, to a feast.
When they had all assembled except Norbanus (he was the only one who did not
come), Albinovanus killed them all at the banquet and then fled to Sulla.
Norbanus having learned that, in consequence of this disaster, Ariminum and
many other camps in the vicinity were going over to Sulla, and being unable
to rely on the good faith and firm support of any of his friends there
present, since he found himself in adversity, took ship as a private
individual and sailed to Rhodes. When, at a later period, Sulla demanded his
surrender, and while the Rhodians were deliberating on it, he killed himself
in the market-place.
[
92]
Carbo sent Damasippus in haste with two other legions to Præneste
to relieve Marius, who was still besieged, but not even these could force
their way through the pass that was guarded by Sulla. The Gauls who
inhabited the country lying between Ravenna and the Alps went over to
Metellus en masse and Lucullus won a victory over another
body of Carbo's forces near Placentia. When Carbo learned these facts,
although he still had 30,000 men around Clusium, and the two legions of
Damasippus, and others under Carinas and Marcius, besides a large force of
Samnites, who were courageously enduring hardships at the pass, he fell into
despair and weakly fled to Africa with his friends, although he was still
consul, in order to make a stand there instead of in Italy. Of those whom he
left behind, the army around Clusium had a battle with Pompey in which they
lost 20,000. Naturally, after this greatest disaster of all, the remainder
of the army dissolved in fragments and each man went to his own home.
Carinas, Marcius, and Damasippus went with all the forces they had to the
pass in order to force their way through it in conjunction with the
Samnites. Failing in the attempt, they marched to Rome, thinking that the
city might be easily taken, as it was bereft of men and provisions, and they
encamped in the Alban territory at a distance of 100 stades from it.
[
93]
Sulla feared for the safety of the city, and sent his cavalry forward with
all speed to hinder their march, and then hastened in person with his whole
army and encamped alongside the Colline gate around the temple of Venus
about noon. The enemy were already encamped around the city. A battle was
fought at once, late in the afternoon. On the right wing Sulla was
victorious. His left wing was vanquished and fled to the gates. The old
soldiers on the walls, when they saw the enemy rushing in with their own
men, dropped the portcullis. It fell upon and killed many soldiers and many
senators. But the majority, impelled by fear and necessity, turned and
fought the enemy. The fighting continued through the night and a great many
were killed. The generals, Telesinus and Albinus, were killed and their camp
was taken. Lamponius the Lucanian, Marcius, and Carinas, and the other
generals of the faction of Carbo, fled. It was estimated that 50,000 men on
both sides lost their lives in this engagement. Prisoners, to the number of
more than 8000, were shot down with darts by Sulla because they were mostly
Samnites. The next day Marcius and Carinas were captured and brought in.
Sulla did not spare them because they were Romans, but killed them both and
sent their heads to Lucretius at Præneste to be displayed around
the walls.
[
94]
When the Prænestians saw them and knew that Carbo's army was
completely destroyed, and that Norbanus himself had fled from Italy, and
that Rome and all the rest of Italy were in the power of Sulla, they
surrendered their city to Lucretius. Marius hid himself in an underground
tunnel and shortly afterward committed suicide. Lucretius cut off his head
and sent it to Sulla, who exposed it in the forum in front of the rostra. It
is said that he indulged in a jest at the youth of the consul, saying that
one ought to be a rower before he manages the helm. When Lucretius took
Præneste he seized the senators who had held commands under
Marius, and put some of them to death and cast the others into prison. The
latter were put to death by Sulla when he came that way. All the others who
were taken in Præneste he ordered to march out to the plain
without arms, and when they had done so he chose out a very few who had been
in any way serviceable to him. The remainder he ordered to be divided into
three parts, consisting of Romans, Samnites, and Prænestians
respectively. When this had been done he announced to the Romans by herald
that they had merited death, but nevertheless he would pardon them. The
others he massacred to the last man. He allowed their wives and children to
go unharmed. He plundered the town, which was extremely rich at that time.
In this way was Præneste served. Norba, another town, still
resisted with all its might until Æmilius Lepidus was admitted to
it in the night by treachery. The inhabitants were maddened by this treason.
Some killed themselves, or fell on each other's swords, others strangled
themselves with ropes. Still others closed the gates and set fire to the
town. A strong wind fanned the flames, which so far consumed the place that
no plunder was left in it. In this way did these stout-hearted men
perish.