[8] Seeking to strengthen his political alliances, the elder Marius married his son to Licinia, a daughter of Lucius Licinius Crassus.
[citation needed] Learning of Cinna's fight to retain his consulship in 87 BC, father and son returned to Rome, where Marius the elder took control of the situation, gathering an army of slaves and gladiators, and murdering his enemies, both real and imagined.
[citation needed] Marius minor was elected consul for 82 BC and deployed on the frontiers of Latium to oppose Sulla, who had conquered the southern part of Italy after landing in Brundisium the prior year.
[7][b] This was a political move by Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, his consular colleague and the new leader of the Marians after Cinna died, to drum up popular support and enthusiasm for the war against Sulla; Marius was much too young and had not held the prerequisite magistracies to be a legally elected consul.
[4] Sulla's lieutenant Quintus Lucretius Afella, conducted the siege,[20] throttling the town with a ring of rapidly constructed earth and tuff barricades.
[22] Although both Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus attempted to break the siege, they were unsuccessful, with relief forces being intercepted and destroyed en route.