BOOK V

1. While the war in Numidia was being waged against Jugurtha, the Roman consuls Marcus Manlius and Quintus Caepio were defeated near the river Rhone by the Cimbri, Teutons, Tigurini, and Ambrones, who were Germanic and Gallic tribes. They also lost their camp and a large part of their army in a great slaughter. There was great fear in Rome, almost as great as during the Punic war in the time of Hannibal, that the Gauls would again come to Rome. Therefore, Marius, after his victory over Jugurtha, was made consul for the second time, and the management of the war against the Cimbri and Teutons was decreed to him. He was granted third and fourth consulships because the Cimbrian war dragged on. In his fourth consulship, he had a colleague, Quintus Lutatius Catulus. Thus, Marius fought against the Cimbri, and in two battles, killed two hundred thousand of the enemy and captured eighty thousand with their leader, Teutobodus. Marius was made consul for a fifth time, although he was not present, on account of this service.

2. Meanwhile, the Teutons and Cimbri, of whom there were still vast numbers, crossed into Italy. Caius Marius and Quintus Catulus again fought against them, with Catulus enjoying the greater success; for in the battle which both consuls conducted, one hundred and forty thousand were slaughtered, either in the battle or in flight, and sixty thousand were captured. Three hundred soldiers died from both Roman armies. Thirty-three military standards of the Cimbri were carried off; two by Marius’ army and thirty-one by Catulus’. This was the end of the war. A triumph was decreed for each of them.

3. During the consulship of Sextus Julius Caesar and Lucius Marcius Philippus, in the six hundred and fifty-ninth year since the founding of the city, when almost all other wars had ceased, the Picentes, Marsi, and Peligni started a very serious war. Although they had been subservient to the Romans for many years, they began to claim equal liberty for themselves. This was a very destructive war. Publius Rutilius, the consul; Caepio, a young nobleman; and Porcius Cato, another consul, were slain in it. The Picentes and Marsi had as generals against the Romans, Titus Vettius, Hierius Asinius, Titus Herennius, and Aulus Cluentius. The Romans Caius Marius (the six-time consul), Cnaeus Pompey, and particularly Lucius Cornelius Sulla, fought well. Among other outstanding accomplishments, Sulla routed Cluentius, the enemy general, and his numerous forces, while only losing one of his own men. The war dragged on for four years with great loss. Finally, in the fifth year, the war was ended by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the consul, who earlier in the same war, as a praetor, had energetically accomplished many things.

4. In the six hundred and sixty-second year since the founding of the city, the first civil war flared up at Rome, and also in the same year, the Mithridatic war began. Caius Marius, the six-time consul, provided the cause for the civil war. For after Sulla, the consul, was assigned the war against Mithridates (who had seized Asia and Achaia), and while he was staying a short time in Campania in order to clean up the remnants of the aforementioned Social war waged in Italy, Marius arranged for his own assignment to the Mithridatic war. Angered by this, Sulla came to the city with the army and fought there against Marius and Sulpicius. He was the first general to enter the city of Rome in arms. He killed Sulpicius, forced Marius to flee, and after selecting Cnaeus Octavius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna as consuls for the coming year, he set out for Asia.

5. For Mithridates (the king of Pontus, who also held Lesser Armenia and the entire circuit of the Pontic sea with the Bosposrus) wished to expel Nicomedes, a friend of the Roman people, from Bithynia, and declared to the Senate that he would wage war against Nicomedes on account of injuries he had suffered. The Senate replied to Mithridates that if he should do this, he too would suffer war from the Romans. Angry over this, he immediately seized Cappadocia and forced Ariobarzanes, king and friend of the Roman people, to flee. Soon, he also invaded Bithynia and Paphlagonia, routing kings Pylaemenes and Nicomedes, friends of the Roman people. From there, he hastened to Ephesus and sent letters throughout Asia, directing that wherever Roman citizens were found, they should be killed the same day.

6. Meanwhile, Athens, a city of Achaia, was handed over to Mithridates by Aristion, an Athenian; for Mithridates had already sent Archelaus, his general, to Achaia with one hundred and twenty thousand cavalry and infantry, and he occupied the rest of Greece. Sulla besieged Archelaus at Piraeus, not far from Athens, and captured Athens itself. Afterwards, Sulla joined battle with Archelaus and defeated him so thoroughly that scarcely ten thousand out of one hundred and twenty thousand of Archelaus’ men survived, while Sulla lost only thirteen men. Mithridates, after hearing of the battle, sent seventy thousand picked men from Asia to Archelaus, and he and Sulla met in battle again. In the first encounter, fifteen thousand of the enemy and Diogenes, the son of Archelaus, were slain. In the second battle, all the forces of Mithridates were wiped out, and Archelaus himself hid unarmed for three days in a swamp. When Mithridates heard what had happened, he ordered for peace to be negotiated with Sulla.

7. In the meantime, Sulla defeated some of the Dardani, Scordisci, Dalmatians, and Maedi, and received the rest in allegiance. When representatives came from Mithridates seeking peace, Sulla responded that he would only grant peace if the king left the lands he had seized and returned to his kingdom. Nevertheless, they both met for a conference afterwards. Peace was arranged between them so that Sulla, as he was hastening to the civil war, would not have an enemy at his back; for while Sulla was defeating Mithridates in Achaia and Asia, Marius, who had been forced to flee, and Cornelius Cinna, one of the consuls, had renewed the war in Italy and entered the city of Rome. They killed the noblest men of the Senate and men of consular rank. They proscribed many. They demolished the house of Sulla himself and forced his wife and sons to flee. The remainder of the Senate came fleeing from the city to Sulla in Greece and begged him to come to the aid of his country. Sulla crossed over into Italy to wage war against the consuls, Norbanus and Scipio. In the first battle, he fought against Norbanus, not far from Capua. Sulla killed six thousand of Norbanus’ men, captured six thousand, and lost one hundred and twenty-four of his own. Then he turned to Scipio, and before the battle or any bloodshed, he accepted the surrender of his whole army.

8. When the consuls changed in Rome, Marius, the son of Marius, and Papirius Carbo received the consulship. Sulla fought against the younger Marius, killing fifteen thousand of Marius’ men while only losing four hundred of his own. Soon afterwards, Sulla also entered the city. He besieged the younger Marius at Praeneste, after pursuing him there, and compelled him to commit suicide. He fought another fierce battle, against Lamponius and Carinas, generals of the Marian faction, near the Collina gate. There were said to have been seventy thousand of the enemy in this battle against Sulla. Twelve thousand surrendered to Sulla, the rest were consumed in the battle, in the camp, and in flight, by the insatiable anger of the victors. In addition, Cnaeus Carbo, the other consul, fled from Ariminum to Sicily and was slain there by Cnaeus Pompey. After learning of his diligence, Sulla put Pompey, a young man of twenty-one, in charge of the surrendered armies, so that he was regarded as second only to Sulla himself.

9. Therefore, Pompey recovered Sicily after slaying Carbo. From there, he crossed over to Africa and killed Domitius, a general of the Marian faction, and Hiarbas, the king of Mauritania who was aiding Domitius. After these events, Sulla celebrated a glorious triumph over Mithridates. Also, Cnaeus Pompey, at twenty-four years of age, celebrated a triumph over Africa. No Roman had ever been granted a triumph at that age before. This was the end of two very destructive wars: the Italian, which was also called the Social war, and the civil war; both of which had dragged on for ten years. More than one hundred and fifty thousand men — twenty-four of consular rank, seven of praetorian, sixty of aedilitian, and almost two hundred senators perished.

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