Sulla's second civil war
Encyclopedia
Sulla's second civil war was one of a series of civil wars of ancient Rome
. It was fought between Lucius Cornelius Sulla
and Gaius Marius the younger
in 82 BC
.
through his first march on Rome
, but departed soon afterwards to lead the First Mithridatic War
. This departure allowed Gaius Marius
and his son Gaius Marius the younger
to return to Rome with an army and, with Lucius Cornelius Cinna
, to wrest control of Rome back from Sulla's supporter Gnaeus Octavius
during Sulla's absence. Based on the orders of Marius, some of his soldiers went through Rome killing the leading supporters of Sulla, including Octavius. Their heads were exhibited in the Forum. After five days, Cinna ordered his more disciplined troops to kill Marius's rampaging soldiers. All told some 100 Roman nobles had been murdered. Marius declared Sulla's reforms and laws invalid, officially exiled Sulla and had himself elected to Sulla's eastern command and himself and Cinna elected consuls for the year 86 BC
. Marius died a fortnight after and Cinna was left in sole control of Rome.
Having managed this achievement, the Marians sent out Lucius Valerius Flaccus
with an army to relieve Sulla of his command in the east. Flaccus had been given as second in command Gaius Flavius Fimbria
, an individual that history records had few virtues. He was to eventually agitate against his commanding officer and incite the troops to murder Flaccus.
In the meantime, the two Roman armies camped next to each other and Sulla, not for the first time, encouraged his soldiers to spread dissension among Flaccus’ army. Many deserted to Sulla before Flaccus packed up and moved on north to threaten Mithridates’ northern dominions. In the meantime Sulla moved to intercept the new Pontic army and end the war at Orchomenus.
To check his enemy's as yet unresisted advance, Carbo send his newly elected puppet Consuls, Gaius Norbanus and Scipio Asiagenus, both with armies against Sulla. Eager not to appear a war-hungry invader, Sulla send deputations to Norbanus offering to negotiate, these are rejected. Norbanus then moves to block Sulla's advance at Canusium and becomes the first to engage him in the Battle of Mount Tifata. Here Sulla inflicts a crushing defeat on the Marians, with Norbanus losing six thousand of his men to Sulla's seventy.
The beaten Norbanus then withdraws with the remnants of his army to Capua and Sulla is stopped in his pursuit by the second Consul, Scipio. But Scipio's men are unwilling to fight and when Sulla approaches they desert en masse to him, further swelling his ranks. The Consul and his son are found cowering in their tents and brought to Sulla, who releases them after extracting a promise that they would never again fight against him or rejoin Carbo. However, immediately after their release Scipio breaks his promise and goes straight to Carbo in Rome.
Sulla then defeats Norbanus for a second time, who also escapes back to Rome and has Metellus Pius and all other senators marching with Sulla declared enemies of the state.
The new Consuls for the year 82BC are Carbo, for his third term, and Gaius Marius the Younger, who is only twenty-two. In the respite from campaigning provided by Winter, the Marians set about replenishing their forces. Quintus Sertorius levies men in Etruria, old veteran of Marius come out of retirement to fight under his son and the Samnites gather their warriors in support of Carbo, hoping to destroy the man who defeated them in the Social War, Sulla.
As the fresh campaigning season opens, Sulla sweeps along the Via Latina towards the capital and Metellus leads Sullan forces into Upper Italy. Carbo throws himself against Metellus whilst the young Marius defends the city of Rome itself. Marius moves to block Sulla's advance at Signia, falling back to the fortress town of Praeneste, in front of which he draws up for battle. The struggle is long and hard fought but in the end the veteran Sullans win the day, with his lines buckling and mass defections of his troops to Sulla, Marius decides to flee. He and many of his men seek refuge in Praeneste but the terrified townspeople shut the gates, Marius himself has to be hoisted in on a rope, hundreds of Marians trapped between the walls and the Sullans are massacred.
Sulla then leaves his lieutenant Lucretius Ofella besieging Praeneste and moves on the now undefended Rome.
Upon his defeat Marius sends word to the praetor Brutus Damasippus in Rome, to kill any remaining Sullan sympathisers left before Sulla can take the city. Damasippus calls a meeting of the Senate and there, in the Curia itself the marked men are cut down by assassins, some, such as Lucius Domitius are killed on the senate steps as they try to flee, and the Pontifex Maxiumus, chief priest of Rome, Scaevola is murdered in the Temple of Vesta, the bodies of the murdered are then thrown into the Tiber.
As Sulla surrounds the city with his troops, the gates are opened by the people and he enters unresisted, taking Rome without a fight, the remaining Marians having fled. The city is his but Sulla does not spend long in Rome before he once again sets out with his army.
Around the same time Sulla was defeating Marius, Metellus was facing an army led by Carbo's general Carrinas, which he routed, and Carbo, with his superior force, after hearing of the defeat at Praeneste withdrew to Arminium.
Sulla then won another victory at Saturnia, followed by his defeat of Carbo at Clusium. Having taken and looted the town of Sena, Pompey and Crassus then slaughtered 3,000 Marians at Spoletium, before ambushing and destroying a force sent by Carbo to relieve Marius in Praeneste. Meanwhile the Samnite Pontius Telesinus and the Lucanian Marcus Lamponius were hurrying with 70,000 men to also break the siege at Praeneste. This force Sulla blocked at a pass and made their route impossible, he also blocked an attempt by Damasippus with two legions to reach Marius. Metellus then crushed an army led by Norbanus at Faventia and Varro Lucullus won a victory over Carbo's men at Placentia.
Carbo had suffered nothing but defeats and setbacks for the entire war, and now he lost heart. Even though he still had armies in the field he decided to flee the scene. With his staff and some men Carbo fled to Sicily, attempting to carry on resistance there.
With their leader gone the remainder of the Marian forces united for one final stand. Damasippus, Carrinas joined their men with the Samnites and Lucanians and marched on Rome. There, at the Battle of the Colline Gate, the last decisive battle of the civil war took place and out of the bitter, long fought struggle Sulla eventually emerged victorious and 50,000 lay dead, amongst them Telesinus the Samnite. Carrinas and Lamponius were brought to Sulla the following day and executed.
Sulla now entered the city victorious. A meeting of the Senate was convened in the Temple of Bellona, as Sulla was addressing the senators the sound of terrified screams drifted in from the Campus Martius. Sulla told the senators not to worry, that some 'criminals are receiving correction.' It was the sound of 8,000 prisoners who had surrendered the previous day being executed on Sulla's orders, none were spared.
Soon Sulla had himself declared Dictator, he now held supreme power over Rome.
When the starving people of Praeneste despaired and surrendered to Ofella, Marius hid in the tunnels under the town and tried to escape through them but failed and committed suicide. The people of Praeneste were then mostly massacred by Ofella.
Carbo was soon discovered and arrested by Pompey, whom Sulla had sent to track the man down. Pompey had the weeping man brought before him in chains and publicly executed him in Lilybaeum, his head then sent to Sulla and displayed along with Marius' and many others in the Forum.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
. It was fought between Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...
and Gaius Marius the younger
Gaius Marius the Younger
Gaius Marius Minor, also known in English as Marius the Younger or informally "the younger Marius" , was the adopted son of Gaius Marius, who was seven times consul, and a famous military commander. Appian first describes him as the son of the great Marius, but in a subsequent passage, he is...
in 82 BC
82 BC
Year 82 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Carbo...
.
Prelude
Sulla had achieved temporary control of Rome and Marius's exile to AfricaAfrica Province
The Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, and the small Mediterranean coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor...
through his first march on Rome
Sulla's first civil war
Sulla's first civil war was one of a series of civil wars in ancient Rome, between Gaius Marius and Sulla, between 88 and 87 BC.- Prelude - Social War :...
, but departed soon afterwards to lead the First Mithridatic War
First Mithridatic War
The First Mithridatic War was a war challenging Rome's expanding Empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Rome were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Bithynia...
. This departure allowed Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
and his son Gaius Marius the younger
Gaius Marius the Younger
Gaius Marius Minor, also known in English as Marius the Younger or informally "the younger Marius" , was the adopted son of Gaius Marius, who was seven times consul, and a famous military commander. Appian first describes him as the son of the great Marius, but in a subsequent passage, he is...
to return to Rome with an army and, with Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna was a four-time consul of the Roman Republic, serving four consecutive terms from 87 to 84 BC, and a member of the ancient Roman Cinna family of the Cornelii gens....
, to wrest control of Rome back from Sulla's supporter Gnaeus Octavius
Gnaeus Octavius
Gnaeus Octavius was a senator and later consul of the Roman Republic. His father, also called Gnaeus Octavius, was Consul in 128 BC.His uncle, Marcus Octavius, was a key figure in opposition to the reforms of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC...
during Sulla's absence. Based on the orders of Marius, some of his soldiers went through Rome killing the leading supporters of Sulla, including Octavius. Their heads were exhibited in the Forum. After five days, Cinna ordered his more disciplined troops to kill Marius's rampaging soldiers. All told some 100 Roman nobles had been murdered. Marius declared Sulla's reforms and laws invalid, officially exiled Sulla and had himself elected to Sulla's eastern command and himself and Cinna elected consuls for the year 86 BC
86 BC
Year 86 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cinna and Marius/Flaccus...
. Marius died a fortnight after and Cinna was left in sole control of Rome.
Having managed this achievement, the Marians sent out Lucius Valerius Flaccus
Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect consul 86 BC)
Lucius Valerius Flaccus was the suffect consul who completed the term of Gaius Marius in 86 BC. He was sent as governor in that year to the Roman province of Asia, but was murdered in a mutiny by Fimbria during the turmoil of the Sullan civil wars and the Mithridatic Wars.Flaccus is also known for...
with an army to relieve Sulla of his command in the east. Flaccus had been given as second in command Gaius Flavius Fimbria
Gaius Flavius Fimbria
Gaius Flavius Fimbria was a Roman politician and a violent partisan of Gaius Marius. He fought in the First Mithridatic War.-Partisan of Marius:...
, an individual that history records had few virtues. He was to eventually agitate against his commanding officer and incite the troops to murder Flaccus.
In the meantime, the two Roman armies camped next to each other and Sulla, not for the first time, encouraged his soldiers to spread dissension among Flaccus’ army. Many deserted to Sulla before Flaccus packed up and moved on north to threaten Mithridates’ northern dominions. In the meantime Sulla moved to intercept the new Pontic army and end the war at Orchomenus.
Course
With Mithridates defeated and Cinna now dead in a mutiny, Sulla was determined to regain control of Rome. In 83BC he landed uncontested at Brundisium with three veteran legions. As soon as he had set foot in Italy, the outlawed nobles and old Sullan supporters who had survived the Marian regime flocked to his banner. The most prominent was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had gathered legions in Africa and, with Marcus Licinius Crassus who had raised troops in Spain, joined Sulla soon after his landing in Italy. The consular Lucius Marcius Philippus also joined Sulla and led a force which secured Sardinia for the Sullan cause. Here is also where the young Gnaeus Pompey first comes into the limelight, the son of Pompey Strabo, he raises three legions in Picenum and, defeating and outmanouvering the Marian forces, makes his way to Sulla. With these reinforcements Sulla's army swells to around 50,000 men, and with his loyal legions he begins his second march on Rome.To check his enemy's as yet unresisted advance, Carbo send his newly elected puppet Consuls, Gaius Norbanus and Scipio Asiagenus, both with armies against Sulla. Eager not to appear a war-hungry invader, Sulla send deputations to Norbanus offering to negotiate, these are rejected. Norbanus then moves to block Sulla's advance at Canusium and becomes the first to engage him in the Battle of Mount Tifata. Here Sulla inflicts a crushing defeat on the Marians, with Norbanus losing six thousand of his men to Sulla's seventy.
The beaten Norbanus then withdraws with the remnants of his army to Capua and Sulla is stopped in his pursuit by the second Consul, Scipio. But Scipio's men are unwilling to fight and when Sulla approaches they desert en masse to him, further swelling his ranks. The Consul and his son are found cowering in their tents and brought to Sulla, who releases them after extracting a promise that they would never again fight against him or rejoin Carbo. However, immediately after their release Scipio breaks his promise and goes straight to Carbo in Rome.
Sulla then defeats Norbanus for a second time, who also escapes back to Rome and has Metellus Pius and all other senators marching with Sulla declared enemies of the state.
The new Consuls for the year 82BC are Carbo, for his third term, and Gaius Marius the Younger, who is only twenty-two. In the respite from campaigning provided by Winter, the Marians set about replenishing their forces. Quintus Sertorius levies men in Etruria, old veteran of Marius come out of retirement to fight under his son and the Samnites gather their warriors in support of Carbo, hoping to destroy the man who defeated them in the Social War, Sulla.
As the fresh campaigning season opens, Sulla sweeps along the Via Latina towards the capital and Metellus leads Sullan forces into Upper Italy. Carbo throws himself against Metellus whilst the young Marius defends the city of Rome itself. Marius moves to block Sulla's advance at Signia, falling back to the fortress town of Praeneste, in front of which he draws up for battle. The struggle is long and hard fought but in the end the veteran Sullans win the day, with his lines buckling and mass defections of his troops to Sulla, Marius decides to flee. He and many of his men seek refuge in Praeneste but the terrified townspeople shut the gates, Marius himself has to be hoisted in on a rope, hundreds of Marians trapped between the walls and the Sullans are massacred.
Sulla then leaves his lieutenant Lucretius Ofella besieging Praeneste and moves on the now undefended Rome.
Upon his defeat Marius sends word to the praetor Brutus Damasippus in Rome, to kill any remaining Sullan sympathisers left before Sulla can take the city. Damasippus calls a meeting of the Senate and there, in the Curia itself the marked men are cut down by assassins, some, such as Lucius Domitius are killed on the senate steps as they try to flee, and the Pontifex Maxiumus, chief priest of Rome, Scaevola is murdered in the Temple of Vesta, the bodies of the murdered are then thrown into the Tiber.
As Sulla surrounds the city with his troops, the gates are opened by the people and he enters unresisted, taking Rome without a fight, the remaining Marians having fled. The city is his but Sulla does not spend long in Rome before he once again sets out with his army.
Around the same time Sulla was defeating Marius, Metellus was facing an army led by Carbo's general Carrinas, which he routed, and Carbo, with his superior force, after hearing of the defeat at Praeneste withdrew to Arminium.
Sulla then won another victory at Saturnia, followed by his defeat of Carbo at Clusium. Having taken and looted the town of Sena, Pompey and Crassus then slaughtered 3,000 Marians at Spoletium, before ambushing and destroying a force sent by Carbo to relieve Marius in Praeneste. Meanwhile the Samnite Pontius Telesinus and the Lucanian Marcus Lamponius were hurrying with 70,000 men to also break the siege at Praeneste. This force Sulla blocked at a pass and made their route impossible, he also blocked an attempt by Damasippus with two legions to reach Marius. Metellus then crushed an army led by Norbanus at Faventia and Varro Lucullus won a victory over Carbo's men at Placentia.
Carbo had suffered nothing but defeats and setbacks for the entire war, and now he lost heart. Even though he still had armies in the field he decided to flee the scene. With his staff and some men Carbo fled to Sicily, attempting to carry on resistance there.
With their leader gone the remainder of the Marian forces united for one final stand. Damasippus, Carrinas joined their men with the Samnites and Lucanians and marched on Rome. There, at the Battle of the Colline Gate, the last decisive battle of the civil war took place and out of the bitter, long fought struggle Sulla eventually emerged victorious and 50,000 lay dead, amongst them Telesinus the Samnite. Carrinas and Lamponius were brought to Sulla the following day and executed.
Sulla now entered the city victorious. A meeting of the Senate was convened in the Temple of Bellona, as Sulla was addressing the senators the sound of terrified screams drifted in from the Campus Martius. Sulla told the senators not to worry, that some 'criminals are receiving correction.' It was the sound of 8,000 prisoners who had surrendered the previous day being executed on Sulla's orders, none were spared.
Soon Sulla had himself declared Dictator, he now held supreme power over Rome.
When the starving people of Praeneste despaired and surrendered to Ofella, Marius hid in the tunnels under the town and tried to escape through them but failed and committed suicide. The people of Praeneste were then mostly massacred by Ofella.
Carbo was soon discovered and arrested by Pompey, whom Sulla had sent to track the man down. Pompey had the weeping man brought before him in chains and publicly executed him in Lilybaeum, his head then sent to Sulla and displayed along with Marius' and many others in the Forum.