A story told by Plutarch tells of Silo making a visit to his friend Marcus Livius and meeting the children of the house.
During the second year of the war (90 BC) he tricked and ambushed the Roman praetor Quintus Servilius Caepio and slaughtered his army.
As further confirmation of his good faith he brought masses of gold and silver (which were actually lead, plated with precious metal).
This army was in fact hidden in ambush, and when Poppaedius ran up a hill as though to look for his men, this was the signal for them to spring from concealment.
[7] He then went after Caepio's co-commander Gaius Marius, Rome's most experienced general, but was unable to force a decisive engagement.
[10] After Bovianum he tried to eject the Romans from Apulia but he was killed in battle by Drusus's brother, Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus.