The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic

by Mike Duncan

After discovering the enemy had decamped for Rome the night before, he spent the morning racing to catch up. At about noon, the first of his men arrived at Rome, and once they were all assembled, the battle trumpets sounded. Despite all his success over the past eighteen months, Sulla spent the rest of the day convinced that all was lost. He personally commanded the left wing of his army, which buckled under the weight of the Samnites. In the confusion of battle, Sulla believed Fortuna had finally abandoned him. Scattered messengers even raced back to Praeneste to tell the men there to break off the siege and reinforce Sulla’s battered legions. But what Sulla did not know was that on the other side of the battle, Crassus had smashed the enemy and captured their camps. It was not until hours later that Sulla realized he had actually won the battle—and only then after Crassus sent Sulla a request for more food to feed his victorious troops. When all the dust cleared, the Battle of the Colline Gate was in fact not just a victory, but an utter route: fifty thousand enemies killed and eight thousand taken prisoner.