As soon as the Italians heard that Pompey Strabo was marching, honor was satisfied; Rome was the aggressor. Mutilus and Silo in the grand council now got all the support they wanted. While Silo remained in Italica and sent Vidacilius, Lafrenius, and Scato north to deal with Pompey Strabo, Gaius Papius Mutilus led six legions to Aesernia. No Latin outpost would mar the autonomy of Italia! Aesernia must fall.
The caliber of Lucius Caesar’s two junior legates became embarrassingly obvious at once; Scipio Asiagenes and Lucius Acilius disguised themselves as slaves and fled the city before the Samnites arrived. Their defection dismayed Aesernia not at all. Formidably fortified and very well provisioned, the city shut its gates and manned its walls with the five cohorts of recruits the junior legates had left behind, so anxious were they to escape. Mutilus saw at once that the siege would be a prolonged one, so he left Aesernia under heavy attack by two of his legions and moved on with the other four toward the Volturnus River, which bisected Campania east to west.
When the news came that the Samnites were marching, Lucius Caesar shifted himself from Capua to Nola, where Lucius Postumius’s five cohorts had tamed the town’s insurrection.
“Until I find out what Mutilus plans to do, I think it best to garrison Nola with both our veteran legions as well,” he said to Sulla as he prepared to leave Capua. “Keep up the work. We are frightfully outnumbered. As soon as you can, send some troops to Venafrum with Marcellus.”
“It’s already done,” said Sulla laconically. “Campania has always been the favorite place for veterans to settle after they retire, and they’re flocking to join. All they need is a helmet on the head, a mail-shirt, a sword by the side, and a shield. As fast as I can equip them and sort out the most experienced to serve as centurions, I’m sending them out to the places you want garrisoned. Publius Crassus and his two oldest sons went to Lucania yesterday with one legion of retired veterans.”
“You should tell me!” said Lucius Caesar a little peevishly.
“No, Lucius Julius, I should not,” said Sulla firmly, his calm unimpaired. “I am here to implement your plans. Once you tell me who is to go where with what, it’s my job to see your orders carried out. You don’t need to ask, any more than I need to tell.”
“Whom did I send to Beneventum, then?” Lucius Caesar asked, aware that his weaknesses were beginning to show; the demands of generaling were too vast.
But not too vast for Sulla, who didn’t permit his satisfaction to show. Sooner or later things would become too much for Lucius Caesar—and then it would be his turn. He let Lucius Caesar move to Nola, knowing it would be as temporary as it was futile. Sure enough, when word came of the investment of Aesernia, Lucius Caesar marched back to Capua, then decided his best move would be to march to the relief of Aesernia. But the central areas of Campania around the Volturnus were in open revolt, Samnite legions were everywhere, and it was rumored Mutilus had taken himself off in the direction of Beneventum.