In 86 BC the populares, in control of the Roman government, dispatched suffect consul Lucius Valerius Flaccus with an army to the province of Asia as a political countermeasure to Lucius Cornelius Sulla, their main opponent. Sulla was campaigning in Greece and Macedon fighting against the forces of king Mithridates of Pontus (see: First Mithridatic War). Flaccus probably employed experienced troops, drawing his recruits from veterans of the recent Social War, but due to a lack of funds he was only able to raise two legions . In 86 or 85 BC Flaccus took his legions through Epirus, Macedon and Thrace to the Hellespont (to cross over into Asia Minor). Flaccus was unpopular with his troops and by the time they had reached the Bosporus one of his legates, a man named Fimbria, taking advantage of Flaccus’s absence, incited a mutiny. Flaccus returned to his army, failed to put down the mutiny, tried to flee, but was hunted down and executed. Fimbria cut off his head and hurled it into the sea. The Valerians now became the Fimbrians.