The Marian Reform

Military tactics have played a very important role in Roman culture. Several great leaders were given credit for their part in the rise of Roman Senate. When one thinks of great accomplishments throughout Roman history, they will think of leaders such as Julius Caesar. Very rarely mentioned, is Caesar's maternal uncle, Gaius Marius. Gaius Marius was born into a poor family in the year 158 BC. He was an unlikely leader since he was born outside the closed aristocracy of the Republic. Marius proved to be a strong statesman and militant leader around the year 115 BC. Along with his unprecedented leadership, he set forth several reforms that would ultimately affect military survival and tactical approach. Marius is often termed "the third founder of Rome".

Prior to Gaius Marius' reforms, Roman Republic requirements to be a soldier were very stringent. Only those with elite status were allowed to serve in the military. A soldier was required to be in the fifth census class or higher. Soldiers were also required to own large amounts of property and supply their own artillery. "Like the classical Greeks, republican Romans considered military conscription a privileged duty restricted to citizens possessing property" (Van Groll). Marius implemented a policy that would allow those less wealthy, those without property, to be considered in the military application census.

Since Marius would be supplying his large army with artillery if you will, the Romans were very efficient and frugal with the weaponry. They would recover the enemies thrown weapon and repair the pila (special throwing spears) by removing the bent peg, straightening it out and re-inserting the peg that held the javelin head. Marius and his legion used a tactic where the blade would break off upon impact making it unable to be used by the enemies during retaliation. These were just a couple of the reforms that seemed to benefit the Roman militia under Gaius Marius.

Marius set out to reform the "shape" of the military as it was known. "He discarded the manipular battle formations. The legion's thirty maniples were reorganized into ten cohorts. Each cohort of five hundred men retained manipular flexibility but were inherently stronger tactical groupings. Size alone made them harder for an enemy to isolate and break" (Van Groll). His units were five hundred feet wide by fifty feet deep. Marius devised standardized tactics and drill to make the transformation stick. He required all military be clean cut and groomed. The military standard of a short beard and short hair still remain today.

Marius realized that year-round training would be beneficial to the military. He therefore enacted a training program that produced tough, well trained soldiers for the Roman army. The soldiers were promised large amounts of land in return for their enlistment. The soldiers of the ancient world were used