Sulla's peace with Pontus, widely regarded as generous so to give Sulla a free hand against his enemies in Italy, and other actions in Asia indicated that he would return in arms. Cinna and Carbo responded by immediately beginning military preparations and a propaganda campaign. They stockpiled money and provisions from all of Italy while levying men and giving warnings that Sulla would, if victorious, overturn Italian enfranchisement. The warnings, given Sulla's violent action against Sulpicius in 88 BC, seemed legitimate. Late in 85 BC, Sulla sent a letter to the Senate in Rome reciting his achievements in the Mithridatic war and complaining "of the treatment he had received from his enemies in return for these services". He then promised that he would avenge himself upon those enemies in the name of his murdered friends, his exiled family, and Rome. Against Cinna's claims, he also asserted he had no intention to overturn Italian enfranchisement. The Senate responded to the letter by dispatching an embassy to Sulla to try to reconcile him with his political opponents. The Senate also instructed Cinna and Carbo stop military preparations; they agreed to do so but ignored the Senate and continued recruiting. Cinna's strategy seems to have been to force their way east into Greece and fight Sulla there. Cinna and Carbo continued in office as consuls for 84 BC; early in that year, Cinna started to embark his men for Epirus. When transiting the Adriatic, the first set of ships transited safely. But the second set encountered a storm. Some of the ships sank and many men deserted, saying they were unwilling to fight fellow citizens. The remaining men waiting to depart at Ancona then refused to embark. Appian reports that when Cinna called an assembly, he attempted to impose discipline, which culminated in his men mutinying and killing him. Plutarch delivers a different story centring around soldiers fearing that Cinna had assassinated the then-young Pompey; this story, however, is not credible and "must exaggerate [Pompey's] importance". After his death, his co-consul Carbo was recalled to Rome hold elections for his replacement, but after two attempts to hold elections received bad omens, the elections were indefinitely postponed and Carbo held office without colleague for the rest of the year. The Senate's envoys brought news of Cinna's death to Sulla. Sulla then rejected the Senate's offers, refused to disband his army, and demanded that the