Sulla and his experienced men immediately seized the moment and fell upon the government army without breaking stride for the usual pre-battle preliminaries. The fight was short and nasty, with 7,000 men killed on the government side for few casualties among their veteran opponents. Norbanus had suffered his second defeat of the war, and he now retreated into Capua itself, and all that prevented Sulla from advancing on Rome was the early arrival of what was to prove an unusually severe winter.
