First of all Sulla and Metellus fought a battle against Norbanus at Canusium and killed 6000 of his men, while Sulla's loss was seventy, but many of his men were wounded. Norbanus retreated to Capua. 85 Next, 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 conference and marched down to the plain. Only three from each side conferred, so that what passed between them is not known. It seems, however, that during the armistice Scipio sent Sertorius to his colleague, Norbanus, to communicate with him concerning the negotiation, and there was a cessation of hostilities while they were waiting for the answers. 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, not knowing what to do, in their tent, where they were captured by Sulla. Scipio's ignorance 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 forward and no away 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, while 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; but of the exact fact there was no evidence, nor am I able now to conjecture what caused the fire. Sertorius, who had been some time previously chosen praetor for Spain, after the taking of Suessa fled to his province, and as the former praetor 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 neighbouring 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 for the second time 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 Aesis, 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 Praeneste, when he led his forces back to Ariminum, with Pompey hung on his rear doing damage. The defeat at Praeneste was in this wise. Sulla having captured the town of Setia, Marius, who was encamped near by, drew a little farther away. But when he arrived at the Sacred Lake 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 threw away their standards in a body and went over to Sulla. This was the beginning of a terrible disaster to Marius. His shattered army fled to Praeneste with Sulla in hot pursuit. The Praenestines 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 round the walls by reason of the closing of the gates. Sulla captured a large number of prisoners, and killed all the Samnites among them, because they had all along been ill-affected toward the Romans.

88 About the same time Metellus gained a victory over another army of Carbo, and here again five cohorts, for safety's sake, deserted to Metellus during the battle. Pompey overcame Marcius near Senae and plundered the town. Sulla, having shut Marius up in Praeneste, drew a line of circumvallation round 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 praetor, to call the Senate together on some pretext or other and to kill Publius Antistius, the other Papirius, Lucius Domitius, and Mucius Scaevola, 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 Scaevola 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, men always nerve themselves to bear the worse.

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 on 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 praetors 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 reinforcements 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, since 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 Praeneste, 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 indeed made his escape, leaving his fires burning, but the army blamed him for being caught in an ambush and there was a serious mutiny. One whole legion marched off under their standards to Ariminum without orders. The rest separated and went home in driblets, so that only seven cohorts remained with their general.

Marcius, having made a failure 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 raised fort 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 Praeneste.

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 with more temper than judgment, hoping to take Metellus unawares and to stampede him. But they were beaten, both the place and the time being unfavourable 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 murdered 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 many of his friends on the spot, now that he found himself in adversity, took passage on a private ship, 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 middle of the market-place.

92 Carbo sent Damasippus in haste with two other legions to Praeneste 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, hoping to win over Africa instead of Italy. Of those whom he left behind, the army around Clusium had a battle with Pompey in which they lost 20,000 men. Naturally, after this greatest disaster of all, the remainder of the army broke into 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 beside the Colline gate near the temple of Venus about noon, the enemy being already encamped around the city. A battle was fought at once, late in the afternoon. On the right wing Sulla was victorious, but his left 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, which 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 slain. The generals, Telesinus and Albinus, were slain also 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 8,000, 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 Praeneste to be displayed round the walls.

94 When the Praenestians 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 entirely 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 "First learn to row, before you try to steer."​ When Lucretius took Praeneste 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 Praeneste 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 sections, consisting of Romans, Samnites, and Praenestians 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 shot down to the last man, but their wives and children he allowed to go unharmed. The town, which was extremely rich at that time, he gave over to plunder.

In this way was Praeneste taken. Norba, another town, still resisted with all its might until Aemilius Lepidus was admitted to it in the night by treachery. The inhabitants, maddened by this treason, killed themselves, or fell on each other's swords, or strangled themselves with ropes. 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 gained from it.