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Gaius Marius
Military Reforms
•The Maniupular system was inflexible; it was not capable of dealing with significant shifts of favor in battle. •A lot of people did not own land, so the landowning rule useable •Large baggage train took up too much space and time.
Marius was another man contributing to the fall of the Republic. In contrast to the Gracchus brothers, Marius was a self-made man with no wealthy background. He came from a humble background and made a spectacular career for himself through the Roman army.
Problems with Old Army
Old Army Structure
•Army divided into 4 sections: Velites (skirmishers), Hastati (younger men armed with swords and light armors), Principes (better armed than the Hastati), and Triarii (older, wealthier, more experienced soldiers). •Men organized into Manipies of sixty or 120 men depending upon class. Triarii fought in manipies of sixty and ten manipies fought in a line.
•Got rid of the Landowning system, so now all soldiers could serve as paid soldiers instead of volunteers. •Soldiers were equipped to sustain themselves during the march, which means that the large baggage train was eliminated •Gaius also did away with the Manipular system—and the class of velites--and reorganized his soldiers into Centuries of eighty men each. Six of these made up a Cohort, and ten Cohorts made up a Legion. Each of these was led by junior officers such as Centurions, who were recruited from the ranks
