Gaius Marius the Younger Gaius Marius Minor , also known in English as Marius the Younger or informally " the younger Marius " ( 110 BC / 108 BC – 82 BC ) , was a Roman general and politician who became consul in 82 BC alongside Gnaeus Papirius Carbo . He committed suicide that same year at Praeneste , after his defeat at the hands of Lucius Cornelius Sulla . Biography . Marius the Younger was the son of the Gaius Marius who was seven times consul and a famous military commander . His mother , Julia , was an aunt of Julius Caesar . In his youth , Marius was educated with Titus Pomponius Atticus and Marcus Tullius Cicero by Greek tutors . Like his father , Marius advanced his political career through popularist tactics . During the Social War , he served under Lucius Porcius Cato , whom one source claims Marius killed at the Battle of Fucine Lake over Cato ' s claims that Cato ' s achievements were on par with the elder Marius ' s victory over the Cimbri . Seeking to strengthen his political alliances , the elder Marius married his son to Mucia Tertia , daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex . In the political turmoil launched by his father in 88 BC to strip his rival Lucius Cornelius Sulla of command of the Roman forces in the First Mithridatic War , the Younger Marius accompanied his father into exile when Sulla unexpectedly marched on Rome , forcing them both to flee . At Ostia , young Marius went on ahead of his father and sailed to Africa . There he went to the court of Hiempsal II of Numidia to seek his help against Sulla , but the king decided to hold him captive instead . He managed to escape with the help of one of Hiempsal ’ s concubines whom the young Marius had seduced . He then joined up with his father who had also come to Africa , and they escaped to the Kerkennah Islands . 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 . According to Cassius Dio , the younger Marius inaugurated his father ’ s seventh consulship by murdering one Plebeian Tribune and sending his head to the newly installed consuls , while having another tribune thrown from the heights of the Capitoline Hill . He also banished two praetor s , ordering that neither should receive fire or water from any Roman citizen . When his father died in 86 BC , the young Marius assumed leadership of his father ’ s adherents and clients , although overall control of the Marian faction was held by Cinna , who was elected consul on consecutive years until his death in 84 BC . The young Marius is said to have lacked his father ' s charisma and sought to achieve popularity on the family name . Young Marius was elected to the consulship for 82 BC . This was a political move by Carbo , his consular colleague , to drum up popular support and enthusiasm for the war against Sulla ; Marius was much too young to be a legally elected consul . Two talented and better - qualified men among the Marian faction , his cousin Marius Gratidianus and Quintus Sertorius , were passed over in favor of the younger Marius ' s symbolic value . However , many of the old veterans from the elder Marius ’ s former armies came out of retirement and flocked to the younger Marius ’ s side , and by the battle of Sacriportus , his army numbered 85 cohorts . In the subsequent civil war in 82 BC , Lucius Cornelius Sulla and his army defeated the armies of Marius at the battle of Sacriportus , after which he retreated with around 7000 surviving troops to the fortress city of Praeneste , along with the treasury of the Capitoline temple . Sulla ' s prefect Quintus Lucretius Ofella conducted the siege , throttling the town with a ring of rapidly constructed earth and tuff barricades . Marius gave orders to Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus , the Urban Praetor to kill all those who were likely to support Sulla ’ s return , including his father - in - law , Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex , the ex - consul Lucius Domitius , Publius Antistius and Papirius Carbo among others . Although both Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus attempted to break the siege , they were unsuccessful . Towards the end of the siege Marius made one final attempt to escape , this time by digging a tunnel under the walls , but the attempt was uncovered . Marius committed suicide so as not to fall into enemy hands .