Leaving his domestic troubles behind, Sulla sailed across the Adriatic in the spring of 87. As he marched his five legions east, every city he passed declared their undying loyalty to Rome—because of course they did, what would you do? But unexpectedly, Archelaus did not march his own army out to halt Sulla’s advance. This allowed Sulla to march all the way to the walls of Athens. Upon arrival, he demanded the city surrender. When the Athenians refused, Sulla ordered siege lines built around the city. But there was a problem—Archelaus controlled the seas. As long as the Pontic navy occupied the harbor of Piraeus, the Romans could never break the siege. To deal with this problem, Sulla dispatched one of his most loyal officers, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, * to make a circuit of the various eastern kingdoms and demand they provide ships for Rome. While he waited for Lucullus to return, Sulla camped in front of Athens. While outside Athens, he received reports about the situation back in Italy. He did not like what he heard, but the most unsettling bit of news was that Gaius Marius had returned.21
MARIUS MADE PREPARATIONS to leave his temporary safe haven on the island of Cercina as soon as he heard Cinna was raising an army of Italians, many of whom would have been Marian veterans. Within a few weeks he cobbled together a small army of loyalists drawn from the inhabitants of Africa, including an infamous band of three hundred Illyrian bodyguards. Dubbed the “Spiked Boots,” these cold-blooded mercenaries would show little sympathy for spluttering Romans begging for their lives.22
When he sailed back to Italy, Marius swung north of Rome and landed in Etruria. The Third Founder of Rome was beloved here among the northern Italians. Marius had delivered them from the Cimbri, and then generously expanded the rights and privileges of those who served under him. These Etruscan communities were outraged that the great Marius had been chased out of Rome like a common criminal. When Marius landed, “his flight and exile had added a certain awe to his high reputation,” and he raised new recruits everywhere he went. Marius soon commanded a personal legion six thousand strong. This force was not as large as the vast army controlled by Cinna, but it was enough to get Marius an audience. Far from the power hungry lunatic he is occasionally portrayed as being, Marius met Cinna and scrupulously placed himself under Cinna’s command. Cinna was, after all, still consul. Cinna appreciated the gesture and invited Marius into his war council.23
This senior war council—now including Cinna, Carbo, Sertorius, and Marius—devised a strategy to surround and blockade Rome. Marius would capture the critical port of Ostia. Cinna would take Arminium and Placenta. Carbo’s legions would stake out the upper Tiber River. When they were all in place Rome would be strangled. But even as he watched these enemy forces fan out, back inside Rome, Octavius refused to surrender.24
Octavius’s stubborn resilience was soon rewarded. After considering all his options, Pompey Strabo decided to fight Cinna rather than join him. With Metellus Pius trapped in Samnium, and Sulla in Greece, Strabo knew the walls of Rome were being defended by an irregular militia of plebs urbana who would never stand against tens of thousands of veteran soldiers. Especially not after those Italians had cut off Rome’s access to food and water. So Strabo decided there was an opportunity to play savior. If he swooped in to deliver Rome from the threat he would not only make himself a hero to the Senate and People of Rome, he would be left as the most powerful general in Italy.25
Having completed their envelopment of the surrounding countryside, Cinna’s forces finally launched a direct assault on Rome in late 87. But reinforced by Strabo, the city withstood the attack. It appeared that Strabo really would be the hero of the hour—but then fate dealt one of its most famous blows. Over the winter of 87–86, plague swept through legionary camps, and more than ten thousand died, among them Pompey Strabo. He was disliked by all, so much so that a sensationalized story circulated that fate struck him dead with lightning. The sudden death of Strabo changed the entire political and military dynamic of the conflict. When Cinna and Marius returned to Rome next time, there would be no one standing in their way.26
