Carbo’s legions in the north still numbered as many as forty thousand men, but with a string of failures mounting, one of Carbo’s lieutenants opened secret communications with Sulla. The lieutenant secured a promise of leniency if he could “accomplish anything important.” To accomplish this “anything important,” the lieutenant invited a group of Carbo’s officers to dinner—including the ex-consul Norbanus. Suspecting treachery, Norbanus himself stayed away, but the others accepted the invitation. When they arrived they were all arrested and executed. The traitorous lieutenant then fled to Sulla’s camp while Norbanus himself despaired of victory and boarded a ship that sailed for the Greek city of Rhodes.45
Carbo, meanwhile, continued to send detachments to Praeneste, but they repeatedly failed to reach the city. With Carbo focused on the south, Metellus Pius, Pompey, and Crassus enveloped all of Cisalpine Gaul behind his back. Carbo’s old province was supposed to be a stronghold of last resort—now it was in enemy hands. The war in Italy lost, Carbo determined his only hope was to escape to the provinces and somehow keep the war going from the periphery of the empire. Sertorius was already in Spain, and Norbanus had just fled to Greece. Carbo decided that if he headed to Africa, by way of Sicily, the war might yet be won. Leaving a joint command of officers in charge of the northern army, Carbo fled Italy. Despite all his military justifications for departing, Carbo was now as much concerned about his head as he was winning the war.46
AFTER GETTING WHIPPED in battle by Pompey, the joint command Carbo left behind determined the only thing to be done was abandon the north completely. They would instead swarm on Praeneste and keep the war going in Samnium, a region known for its deep hostility to Sulla. The northern army came down and combined with the independent Samnite and Lucanian forces now led by the Samnite general Telesinus. All these forces joined together and tried one last time to relieve Praeneste in early November 82. But the fortifications blocking all the roads were simply too strong and they were forced to retreat.47
With all reasonable strategies having come up empty, the only thing left to do was launch one last dramatic attempt to salvage the war. Despite the fact that Italy was swarming with Sullan armies, Telesinus noticed there was, at that moment, no army standing between them and Rome. With winter descending, and the armies of Sulla closing in on their position, Telesinus proposed pulling up stakes in the middle of the night and racing to Rome to recapture it before Sulla could stop them. The other officers agreed.48
When dawn broke the next morning, the people of Rome found an army forty thousand strong camped outside the Colline Gate. Newly inspired Sullan partisans raised a force and sallied out in the hope of scattering the enemy in case it was just a bluff to intimidate the city. But it was no bluff. The force that rode out the gates didn’t come back. This triggered a panic inside Rome. With Telesinus’s army mostly composed of Samnites and Lucanians, they would not be merciful if they breached the walls. Indeed, as they stood before the Colline Gate, Telesinus gave his men a fiery speech: “The last day is at hand for the Romans… These wolves that made such ravages upon Italian liberty will never vanish until we have cut down the forest that harbors them.”49
Sulla was not far behind. After discovering the enemy had decamped for Rome the night before, he spent the morning racing to catch up. At about noon, the first of his men arrived at Rome, and once they were all assembled, the battle trumpets sounded. Despite all his success over the past eighteen months, Sulla spent the rest of the day convinced that all was lost. He personally commanded the left wing of his army, which buckled under the weight of the Samnites. In the confusion of battle, Sulla believed Fortuna had finally abandoned him. Scattered messengers even raced back to Praeneste to tell the men there to break off the siege and reinforce Sulla’s battered legions. But what Sulla did not know was that on the other side of the battle, Crassus had smashed the enemy and captured their camps. It was not until hours later that Sulla realized he had actually won the battle—and only then after Crassus sent Sulla a request for more food to feed his victorious troops. When all the dust cleared, the Battle of the Colline Gate was in fact not just a victory, but an utter route: fifty thousand enemies killed and eight thousand taken prisoner. Telesinus was himself found wounded in the field. He was killed and his head hoisted on a spear.50
