Marius

Gaius Marius (Latin: C·MARIVS·C·F·C·N)¹ (157 BC - January 13, 86 BC) was a Roman general and politician elected Consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of unlanded citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate cohorts.

Importance of Gaius Marius

The career of Gaius Marius illustrates a number of the trends that would lead to the fall of the Republic. He was a novus homo ("new man", a man without senatorial forebears) from the Italian countryside who came to prominence in Rome through military competence, and whom the oligarchy had a hard time assimilating into the political system. He was given unprecedented power at Rome to deal with a military emergency, which could only be solved through bending the accepted constitution. Finally, he instituted a military reform that ended the prerequisite of land ownership for a career in the army. Over time, this reform was to change entirely the relationship of the troops to the state. Effectively, the new "Marian" army recruited largely from the proletariat with the promise of large quantities of plunder in their campaigns as well as a pension of land upon their discharge. The result of these changes was usually an army loyal to their commanding general over and above their loyalties to the state. The importance of the reforms of Gaius Marius is best summed up by Professor Hugh Last: " did more than any other single factor to make possible that series of civil wars which only ended in the establishment of the Principate." (The Cambridge Ancient History, vol IX, p133.)

Related Topics:
Italian - Rome - Oligarchy - Pension

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~