Young Marius is elected to the consulship…

The Syrians, weary of dynastic struggles after a bloody struggle for the Seleucid  throne, decide in 83 BCE to choose Tigranes as the protector of their kingdom and offer him the crown of Syria.

Magadates is appointed as his governor in Antioch.

Tigranes now conquers Cilicia and …

…Phoenicia, effectively putting an end to the last remnants of the Seleucid Empire.

The southern border of his domain reaches as far as Ptolemais (modern Akko).

Tigranes sends many of the inhabitants of conquered cities to his new metropolis of Tigranakert (Latin name, Tigranocerta).

The ambitious Roman general Lucius Licinius Murena, instigating what is called the Second Mithridatic War, invades Pontus without provocation in 83, landing in the Kizilirmak River area.

Many of those in a position of power, who had not yet taken a clear side, now choose to support Sulla.

The first of these is Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius, who governs Africa.

The old enemy of Marius, and assuredly of Cinna as well, leads an open revolt against the Marian forces in Africa.

Additional help comes from Picenum and Spain.

Two of the three future triumvirs join Sulla's cause in his bid to take control.

Marcus Licinius Crassus, who had been forced by Cinna's proscription to flee to Hispania in 84, following two years of exile, marches to Rome with an army, his chief concern being the restoration of his family's prestige.

The young son of Pompeius Strabo (the butcher of Asculum during the Social War), raises an army of his own from among his father's veterans and throws his lot in with Sulla.

Pompey, at the age of twenty-three and never having held a Senatorial office, forces himself into the political scene with an army at his back.

Regardless, the war continues, with Asiagenus raising another army in defense.

This time he moves after Pompey, but once again, his army abandons him and goes over to the enemy.

As a result, desperation follows in Rome as the year 83 comes to a close.

The Senate reelects Cinna's old co-Consul, Papirius Carbo, to his third term, and Gaius Marius the Younger, the twenty-six-year-old son of the great general, to his first.

Hoping to inspire Marian supporters throughout the Roman world, recruiting begins in earnest among the Italian tribes who had always been loyal to Marius.

In addition, possible Sullan supporters are murdered.

The urban praetor L. Junius Brutus Damasippus leads a slaughter of those Senators who seem to lean towards the invading forces, yet one more incident of murder in a growing spiral of violence as a political tool in the late Republic.

Sulla prepares his five legions and leaves the two originally under Fimbria to maintain peace in Asia Minor.

In the spring of 83 BCE, Sulla crosses the Adriatic with a large fleet from Patrae, west of Corinth, to Brundisium and Tarentum in the heel of Italy.

Landing uncontested, he is given ample opportunity to prepare for the coming war.

The newly elected Roman consuls, L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus Asiagenus and C. Norbanus, levy and prepare armies of their own to stop Sulla and protect the Republican government.

Norbanus marches first with the intention of blocking a Sullan advance at Canusium.

Seriously defeated, …

…Norbanus is forced to retreat to Capua where there is no respite.

Sulla follows his defeated adversary and wins another victory in a very short time.

Meanwhile, …

…Asiagenus is also on the march south with an army of his own.

Asiagenus or his army, however, seem to have little motivation to fight.

At the town of Teanum Sidicinum, Sulla and Asiagenus meet face to face to negotiate and Asiagenus surrenders without a fight.

The army sent to stop Sulla wavers in the face of battle against experienced veterans, and certainly along with the prodding of Sulla's operatives, gives up the cause, going over to Sulla's side as a result.

Left without an army, Asiagenus has little choice but to cooperate and later writings of Cicero suggest that the two men actually discussed many matters regarding Roman government and the Constitution.

Sulla lets Asiagenus leave the camp, firmly believing him to be a supporter.

He is possibly expected to deliver terms to the Senate but immediately rescinds any thought of supporting Sulla upon being set free.

Sulla later makes it publicly known that not only will Asiagenus suffer for opposing him, but that any man who continues to oppose him after this betrayal will suffer bitter consequences.

With Sulla's three quick victories, though, the situation begins to rapidly turn in his favor.