Note 1900 — Chapter III

The younger Marius being entirely defeated by Sulla in the decisive battle fought near Sacriportus, B. C.82, Marius threw himself into Præneste, where he had deposited the treasures of the Capitoline temple. (Pliny H. N. l. xxxiii. s. 5.) Sulla left Lucretius Opella to prosecute the siege while he hastened on to Rome. Various efforts were made to relieve Præneste, but they all failed; and after Sulla’s great victory at the Colline gate of Rome, in which Pontius Telesinus was defeated and slain, Marius despaired of holding out any longer, and in company with the brother of Telesinus attempted to escape by a subterraneous passage, which led from the town into the open country; but finding that their flight was discovered, they put an end to one another’s lives. According to other accounts, Marius killed himself, or was killed by his slave at his own request. Marius perished in the year of his consulship. Smith, Dict. Biogr. and Myth.