r his soldiers, transported with indignation and
stopping their work, fixed their spears in the ground close to the
trenches, and drawing their swords with a loud shout, were forthwith
at close quarters with the enemy. The soldiers of Marius did not stand
their ground long, and there was a great slaughter of them in their
flight. Marius, who fled to Praeneste,[275] found the gates closed, but
a rope being let down from the walls, he fastened himself to it, and
was drawn up into the city. Some historians say, and Fenestella[276]
among them, that Marius saw nothing of the battle, but that being
exhausted by want of sleep and fatigue he lay down on the ground in
the shade, and as soon as the signal was given for battle, fell
asleep, and that he was roused with difficulty when the flight began.
Sulla says that he lost only twenty-three men in this battle, and that
he killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and took eight thousand alive.
He was equally successful everywhere else through his generals
Pompeius,[277] Crassus, Metellus, Servilius; for without sustaining
any but the most trifling loss, they destroyed the great armies of
their opponents, and at last Carbo,[278] who was the main support of
the opposite party, stole away from his troops by night and sailed to
Libya.

XXIX. In the last struggle, however, like a fresh combatant attacking
an exhausted athlete, Telesinus the Samnite was very near tripping up
Sulla and laying him prostrate at the gates of Rome. Telesinus was
hastening with Lamponius the Lucanian and a strong force to Praeneste,
in order to rescue Marius, who was besieged; but finding that Sulla in
his front and Pompeius in his rear were coming against him, and that
he could neither advance nor retreat, like a brave and experienced man
he broke up his encampment by night and marched with all his force
against Rome. And indeed he was very near surprising the city, which
was unguarded; however, halting about ten stadia from the Colline
gate, he passed the night there, full of confidence and elated with
hope, as he had got the advantage over so many great generals. At
daybreak the most distinguished young men came out on horseback to
oppose him, but many of them fell, and among them Claudius
Appius,[279] a man of noble rank and good character. This naturally
caused confusion in the city, and there were women shrieking and
people hurrying in all directions, in expectation that the city was
going to be stormed,