08-01-2016, 06:38 PM
Standing army was not one of Marius' reforms. Marius commanded four separate armies during his lifetime, none were long standing.
The army he assumed command of for the Jugurthan War in 107 BC was initially raised in 111 BC by the Consul L. Calpurnius Bestia, then was commanded by the Consul Sp. Postumius Albinus, then the Consul/Pro-Consul Q. Caecilius Metellus, them Marius usurped Metellus' pro-consular command and he took the army and added to it a sizeable supplementum, which included Capite Censi (Head Count, propertyless citizens). At the conclusion of this war in 105 BC and after his Triumph, the army was discharged and the veterans of it received land grants in 103 BC by the tribune L. Appuleius Saturninus, who was allied with Marius for some years.
During the Cimbri Wars Marius took command of the Consular army raised by P. Rutilius Rufus in 105 BC, as it was considered more highly disciplined than the army used by Marius in Africa, which had been known for having quite a few discipline problems over the years and its many commanders. After the defeat of the Cimbri and Teutones tribal confederation in 101 BC this army was discharged, it too had Agrarian laws passed by Saturninus which awarded land to the veterans, though these laws might not have been followed following the Saturninus Affair in 100 BC.
Marius remained outside of any elected magistrate positions from that point forward. During the Social War he served as a Legate and then for a short time as a pro-Consul, assuming command of the army of P. Rutilius Lupus after he was killed in battle. Marius then fell ill and the army switched to the command of Gn. Pompeius Strabo, I believe.
During the Civil Wars, after Marius was expelled from Rome and declared outlaw, he took to Africa where a number of his previous veterans were living, his clients (as he had pushed to get them their land grants). Them and other Roman citizen loyalists/clients followed Marius to Rome and formed into legions when he and Cinna took Rome following Sulla's departure for the East to fight Mithridates. Following Marius' death these armies likely passed to Cinna, Q. Sertorius, Gn. Papirius Carbo, or Marius the Younger.
The Roman army as a whole did not become long standing until after about the time period of Caesar's Civil War and thereafter. By Caesar's time in Gaul, it had become typical to raise a legion from scratch for 10-16 years before discharging it, usually necessitating heavy bonuses after the 10 year mark. By the close of the Civil War period with Augustus' victories each of the remaining legions that Augustus had either raised or inherited from M. Antonius were either discharged or turned into standing legions, no longer being disbanded and permanently stationed in some garrison on the borders of the empire.
During his many years commanding various Roman armies Marius continued using the standard Socii attachments of Latins and Italian infantry and cavalry, as well as auxilliaries, no different as any other during the period. This was the case during the Jugurthine War and the Cimbri War, there are numerous mentions of various Italian elements within his army, as well as foederati, such as Thracians, Ligurians, Gauls, Numidians, etc.
The breaking down of the infantry classes, the abolishment of the traditional age and equipment classes of the Velites, Hastati, Principes, and Triari, likely happened during the latter stages of the 2nd Century BC, and were not directly attributed to Marius. Between G. Gracchus' military reforms and others, there was a general lowering of financial standards to qualify as assidui, propertied citizens liable for military service, added to this were partial subsidizing of at least some clothing, if not actual arms and armor. During the recruitment woes of the latter 2nd Century BC, stemming from the horribly unpopular Spanish wars against the Celtibernians and Lusitanians, as well as the repeated losses of numerous entire armies during the last two decades of the 2nd Cent. against the Cimbri, the Spanish, the Illyrians/Thracians, and others, there was likely a need to open up the ranks and standardize equipment even more than previous, as there was no way to guarantee age brackets during recruitment drives, it was hard enough just filling legions (enough so that they needed laws forbidding Roman citizens from leaving Italy itself without permission, done as a way of avoiding service).
Personally I think the last of the age barriers were broken long before Marius took command of his first army in Africa. By the time Metellus assumed command in 109 BC he had already needed to bring a sizeable supplementum draft of replacements to make up for losses suffered at the humiliating defeat at Suthul, as well as needing to reequip the entirety of the survivors (who'd been forced to strip off arms and walk "Under the Yoke" as Jugurtha's punishment). That reorganization of the army would be replicated again by Marius two years later in 107 BC when he would take command and add in over 5,000 citizen soldiers (not including Socii replacements, infantry and cavalry). To put that in perspective, the total Roman citizens serving in a consular army was of ~10,000, so Marius had needed to replace over half of them, and that group were the survivors of an army that had already been heavily replaced once already. Added to the need to break down old classes was that the unknown number of Capite Censi who would have been needed to be equipped fully by the state and were trained as normal infantry of the line, instead of serving as skirmishers, which had been the case in the past when it came to poor soldiers being recruited. Thus, for recruitment and organization purposes, it would have been much easier to fill up citizen bodies of infantry cohorts and have them organized and armed near identically from one another, instead of trying to maintain old fashioned infantry organizational classes that were no longer suited to the attrition style of warfare that was epidemic in the later 2nd Cent. BC, as well as issues with recruitment and replacement. And that doesn't even take into consideration the tactical benefits...
Overall, most of the reforms attributed to Marius are done falsely.
The army he assumed command of for the Jugurthan War in 107 BC was initially raised in 111 BC by the Consul L. Calpurnius Bestia, then was commanded by the Consul Sp. Postumius Albinus, then the Consul/Pro-Consul Q. Caecilius Metellus, them Marius usurped Metellus' pro-consular command and he took the army and added to it a sizeable supplementum, which included Capite Censi (Head Count, propertyless citizens). At the conclusion of this war in 105 BC and after his Triumph, the army was discharged and the veterans of it received land grants in 103 BC by the tribune L. Appuleius Saturninus, who was allied with Marius for some years.
During the Cimbri Wars Marius took command of the Consular army raised by P. Rutilius Rufus in 105 BC, as it was considered more highly disciplined than the army used by Marius in Africa, which had been known for having quite a few discipline problems over the years and its many commanders. After the defeat of the Cimbri and Teutones tribal confederation in 101 BC this army was discharged, it too had Agrarian laws passed by Saturninus which awarded land to the veterans, though these laws might not have been followed following the Saturninus Affair in 100 BC.
Marius remained outside of any elected magistrate positions from that point forward. During the Social War he served as a Legate and then for a short time as a pro-Consul, assuming command of the army of P. Rutilius Lupus after he was killed in battle. Marius then fell ill and the army switched to the command of Gn. Pompeius Strabo, I believe.
During the Civil Wars, after Marius was expelled from Rome and declared outlaw, he took to Africa where a number of his previous veterans were living, his clients (as he had pushed to get them their land grants). Them and other Roman citizen loyalists/clients followed Marius to Rome and formed into legions when he and Cinna took Rome following Sulla's departure for the East to fight Mithridates. Following Marius' death these armies likely passed to Cinna, Q. Sertorius, Gn. Papirius Carbo, or Marius the Younger.
The Roman army as a whole did not become long standing until after about the time period of Caesar's Civil War and thereafter. By Caesar's time in Gaul, it had become typical to raise a legion from scratch for 10-16 years before discharging it, usually necessitating heavy bonuses after the 10 year mark. By the close of the Civil War period with Augustus' victories each of the remaining legions that Augustus had either raised or inherited from M. Antonius were either discharged or turned into standing legions, no longer being disbanded and permanently stationed in some garrison on the borders of the empire.
During his many years commanding various Roman armies Marius continued using the standard Socii attachments of Latins and Italian infantry and cavalry, as well as auxilliaries, no different as any other during the period. This was the case during the Jugurthine War and the Cimbri War, there are numerous mentions of various Italian elements within his army, as well as foederati, such as Thracians, Ligurians, Gauls, Numidians, etc.
The breaking down of the infantry classes, the abolishment of the traditional age and equipment classes of the Velites, Hastati, Principes, and Triari, likely happened during the latter stages of the 2nd Century BC, and were not directly attributed to Marius. Between G. Gracchus' military reforms and others, there was a general lowering of financial standards to qualify as assidui, propertied citizens liable for military service, added to this were partial subsidizing of at least some clothing, if not actual arms and armor. During the recruitment woes of the latter 2nd Century BC, stemming from the horribly unpopular Spanish wars against the Celtibernians and Lusitanians, as well as the repeated losses of numerous entire armies during the last two decades of the 2nd Cent. against the Cimbri, the Spanish, the Illyrians/Thracians, and others, there was likely a need to open up the ranks and standardize equipment even more than previous, as there was no way to guarantee age brackets during recruitment drives, it was hard enough just filling legions (enough so that they needed laws forbidding Roman citizens from leaving Italy itself without permission, done as a way of avoiding service).
Personally I think the last of the age barriers were broken long before Marius took command of his first army in Africa. By the time Metellus assumed command in 109 BC he had already needed to bring a sizeable supplementum draft of replacements to make up for losses suffered at the humiliating defeat at Suthul, as well as needing to reequip the entirety of the survivors (who'd been forced to strip off arms and walk "Under the Yoke" as Jugurtha's punishment). That reorganization of the army would be replicated again by Marius two years later in 107 BC when he would take command and add in over 5,000 citizen soldiers (not including Socii replacements, infantry and cavalry). To put that in perspective, the total Roman citizens serving in a consular army was of ~10,000, so Marius had needed to replace over half of them, and that group were the survivors of an army that had already been heavily replaced once already. Added to the need to break down old classes was that the unknown number of Capite Censi who would have been needed to be equipped fully by the state and were trained as normal infantry of the line, instead of serving as skirmishers, which had been the case in the past when it came to poor soldiers being recruited. Thus, for recruitment and organization purposes, it would have been much easier to fill up citizen bodies of infantry cohorts and have them organized and armed near identically from one another, instead of trying to maintain old fashioned infantry organizational classes that were no longer suited to the attrition style of warfare that was epidemic in the later 2nd Cent. BC, as well as issues with recruitment and replacement. And that doesn't even take into consideration the tactical benefits...
Overall, most of the reforms attributed to Marius are done falsely.
