Roman Army before and after the Marius' Reforms

[Bryan]

One note about property for the census, it was not liquid wealth, as in cash. The census took in consideration the family's total assets and gave a number value to it (not individual, as sons were only independent upon marriage or death of paterfamilia/inheritance, by law of the 12 tables they had no property of their own until they were on their own). If someone had 4,000 asses to qualify for Class V (Polybius), or 1,100 asses (Cicero), that doesn't mean they had that much to spend on fighting kit. That was their total net worth, the sum of all property they possessed. Much of their wealth of course would be tied up in land, houses, day to day living expenses. In addition, being an agrarian society, Rome was a debtor society, as are most farming societies across the world since the dawn of time, so they likely would have been land rich, cash poor, one or two bad harvests away from being completely broke and losing their land as collateral to a debt.  

History and Evolution of the Term Middle Class

Where are you getting the cost for armor? I'd like to see the source for that, very interesting.