Army reform of Marius

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Portrait of a stranger, identified with Marius, Münchner Glyptothek (Inv. 319)

The term "Army reform of Marius" or "Marian army reform" summarizes a number of developments in the Roman army that were attributed to the Roman general and politician Gaius Marius in older research .

Reform measures attributed to Gaius Marius

As part of the campaigns against the Cimbri and Teutons , Gaius Marius is said to have fundamentally reformed the Roman legions , according to older research . The reform should have included the following individual measures:

  • the combination of the 30 manipulas (approx. 160 each) into 10 cohorts (approx. 480 each)
  • the standardization of the arming of the Legionnaires (and thus the elimination of hastati , principes and triarii as troops genera ),
  • the abolition of the velites ,
  • the introduction of a new pilum ,
  • improving training through gladiator trainers, continuous marches and runs,
  • the reduction of the baggage train , as Marius let the legionaries carry their luggage themselves (hence the nickname muli mariani - “ mules of Marius”)
  • the introduction of the silver legionary eagle ( aquila ) as a standard ( signum ) to strengthen the legionnaires' corps spirit ,
  • and the determination of the legionnaires' service period at a uniform 16 years

As a result, the Roman army would have changed from a civil militia into a professional army of volunteers .

The reform in tradition

This reform was derived from a number of passages by ancient authors:

  • Sallust ( Bell. Iug. 84) speaks of Marius recruiting allies and selecting handpicked men without characterizing this as a breach of tradition.
  • Plutarch (Marius 9,1) writes that contrary to custom, Marius recruits the dispossessed and slaves as volunteers.
  • The new pilum can also be found at Plutarch (Marius 25,2ff).
  • The nickname muli mariani can be found in Plutarch (Marius 13) and Frontinus Festus (Strat. IV 1,7). Plutarch gives two possible explanations for the meaning of the nickname: the heavy baggage that the legionaries under Marius had to carry, or that they were well cared for and obedient.
  • The introduction of the legionary eagle can be found in Pliny the Elder (X 4). According to Pliny, the eagle was only one of five standards until Marius' second consulate (104 BC). However, he also reports that "a few years earlier" it had become customary to leave the other standards in the camp and only take the eagle with you.

Measures without source evidence are the cohort legion, the standardization of armament, the conversion of the militia army into a professional army and the establishment of a uniform service period. The improved fencing training of the legionaries by gladiator trainers, however, goes back to Publius Rutilius Rufus .

Results of recent research

The results of the more recent research contradict the conventional picture of a massive army reform under Marius. The cohort has been used in the Spanish theater of war since the Second Punic War . In the East, the cohort only moved in after the defeat of the Hellenistic states; only a certain Lucullus set them - probably 114 BC. Under Gaius Porcius Cato - against the Skordisker . Apparently, the cohorts were better suited than the maniples to fight less organized, “barbaric” opponents. Finally, in Africa, Marius' predecessor, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus, used both manipulas and cohorts. In the course of this lengthy conversion from maniples to cohorts, the armament was probably standardized, the cost of which has been at the latest since the reforms of the Gracchi 123-122 BC. Were taken over by the state. The new model of the pilum introduced by Marius turned out to be flawed; in Caesar's time it had already been replaced by a further development. The increasing standardization of the armament of the legionnaires was also not associated with a formal abolition of the hastati , principes and triarii , which continued to exist as service categories , but whose distinction became less important. Velites are still documented under Caesar.

The training of the legionaries was in the hands of the respective general at the time of the republic. Marius was able to draw on the model of Scipio Aemilianus , under whom he had served before Numantia , among other things . Fixed standards in education were only developed under Augustus . The fact that soldiers had to carry their luggage themselves was also a common measure in antiquity: in addition to the models Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great , Metellus in Africa had also asked his legionaries to do this. The silver legionary eagle had also existed before Marius. Marius, however, got rid of the other four standard motifs: wolf, minotaur, horse and boar.

The recruiting of the dispossessed and the admission of volunteers into the legions were portrayed as the most fundamental breaches of tradition by Marius. However, volunteers have been documented long before that, around 200 and 198 BC. In the war against Philip V of Macedonia . Scipio Aemilianus also advertised his friends and clients before setting off for Numantia. The abolition of the previous census , which only allowed citizens with a certain income to serve in the legions, is to be carried out after Marius' first election as consul in 107 BC. Have taken place. However, the one-time recruitment of only 3,000 to 5,000 volunteers before leaving for Africa in 107 BC. According to the more recent view, it can hardly be seen as a significant break with the tradition of raising legions, especially since the old, census-based raising method of the dilectus persisted and was also repeatedly used by Marius himself. In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC BC, however, a slow change took place, the dilectus lost its importance, while the number of volunteers increased.

A reduction in the minimum wealth for military service apparently had already occurred during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Took place. From originally 11,000 aces during the 2nd Punic War, the census was increased to 4,000 aces and finally probably in 129 BC. Lowered to 1,500 aces. In practice, this meant that, after all, almost anyone who owned a hut could serve in the legions. During the 2nd century the legions were gradually proletarianized . The explicit recruitment of the dispossessed also has examples in earlier Roman history, mostly in emergency situations, for example during the 2nd Punic War. Nor is there any evidence that Marius' recruitment of the proletarii should be a lasting reform. Until Augustus, the legions probably consisted of volunteers (including proletarii , some of them effectively as professional soldiers) and wealthy conscripts at the same time .

The conditions under which service in the legions took place remained unchanged under Marius. The pay remained the same (112.5 denarii per year), the service period was a maximum of 16 years, whereby the legionnaire did not know at all when joining the army whether he would actually have to pay it. They were hired and dismissed as required.

Consequences and evaluation of the actions of Marius

According to recent research, there was probably no far-reaching reform of the Roman army that was effective at specific points. The changes ascribed to him were rather the result of a long-term process of professionalization of the Roman army in the course of the 2nd century BC. At the time of the Marius Consulate, many of these developments had been going on for a long time or were almost complete.

On a completely different level, however, Marius set a precedent that is weighted far more highly in today's research than the army reform traditionally attributed to him: Apparently, he took the volunteer from 107 BC. Chr. Promised a piece of land for her release. Presumably the promise was made to keep veterans of the African War in the legions after its end. When the army was dismissed after the war against Jugurtha , there was no land distribution.

Later generals seem to have followed this example again and again, so that the legionaries soon derived a claim to the allocation of a piece of land upon discharge . The fact that military leaders like Marius succeeded in enforcing the land distributions even against the resistance of the Senate led to significant changes in the relationship between the army and the Roman state: “The veterans thus practically became clients of the politician concerned - and thus devoted supporters. They formed a significant part of the so-called 'private' armies of the civil wars of the 1st century BC. Chr. "

Marius is considered to be the pioneer in the dissolution of the political system of the Roman Republic. The bond between the soldiers and the general became so strong that popular commanders like Marius himself, Sulla , Pompejus , Caesar and others. a. could use the personal loyalty of the legionnaires to stand up to the Senate and gain extra-constitutional power under threat or use of force. According to the prevailing opinion today, this contributed significantly to the fall of the republican state.

literature

  • Heribert Aigner : Thoughts on the so-called army reform of Marius. In: Innsbruck contributions to cultural studies. 18, 1974, ZDB ID 507453-8 , pp. 11-23.
  • MJV Bell: Tactical Reform in the Roman Republican Army. In: Historia . 14, 1968, pp. 404-422.
  • PA Brunt : The fall of the Roman Republic and related essays. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1988, ISBN 0-19-814849-6 .
  • Richard J. Evans: Gaius Marius. A Political Biography. University of South Africa, Pretoria 1994, ISBN 0-86981-850-3 ( Hiddingh-Currie 4).
  • Emilio Gabba : Republican Rome, the Army and the Allies. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1976, ISBN 0-520-03259-4 .
  • Kate Gilliver: On the Road to Empire. A history of the Roman army. Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1761-0 .
  • Adrian Goldsworthy : The Roman Army at War. 100 BC - AD 200. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1996, ISBN 0-19-815057-1 ( Oxford Classical Monographs ).
  • Lawrence Keppie: The making of the Roman Army. From Republic to Empire. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK 1998, ISBN 0-8061-3014-8 .
  • Bernhard Linke : The Roman Republic from the Gracchen to Sulla. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-15498-3 ( history compact - antiquity ).
  • Martin Miller: The professionalization of the Roman Army in the Second Century BC Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago IL 1984 (dissertation).
  • Nigel Pollard, Joanne Berry: The Legions of Rome. Translated from the English by Cornelius Hartz, Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8062-2633-1 , pp. 19-23 (“The reforms of Marius”).
  • JW Rich: The Supposed Roman Manpower Shortage of the Later Second Century BC In: Historia. 32, 1983, pp. 287-331, online (PDF; 1.88 MB) .
  • Michael M. Sage: The Roman Republican Army. A sourcebook. Routledge, New York NY et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-17880-8 .
  • Richard E. Smith: Service in the Post-Marian Roman Army. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1958 ( Publications of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Manchester 9, ZDB -ID 1490743-4 ).
  • George R. Watson: The Pay of the Roman Army . In: Historia. 7, 1958, pp. 113-120.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This presentation essentially follows Goldsworthy and Linke.
  2. ↑ This point is based on Aigner (1974), pp. 11-16.
  3. ↑ Nigel Pollard, Joanne Berry: The Legions of Rome. Stuttgart 2012, p. 20.
  4. ↑ Livius XXV, 39, I and Frontinus II, 6, II name Lucius Marcius as the author, the Manipel for the first time 210 BC. BC to cohorts. In Polybios II, 23, I and II, 33, I we find the use of cohorts in the battles of Ilpia and the Ebro in 206 BC. For the documentation of further missions see Bell (1965).
  5. ↑ Bell (1964), pp. 408-416.
  6. ^ Sallust bell. iug. 49.2, 49.6 and 51.3. Also: Bell (1964), p. 415 f .; Sage (2008), p. 200.
  7. ↑ Gabba (1976), p. 11; Gilliver (2003), p. 24 f.
  8. ↑ Aigner (1974), p. 12 f.
  9. ↑ Bell (1964), p. 421.
  10. ↑ Sage (2008), p. 229; Keppie (1998), p. 47.
  11. ↑ Keppie (1998), p. 66.
  12. ↑ Aigner (1974), p. 13; Keppie (1998), p. 67.
  13. ↑ Gabba (1976), p. 11; Keppie (1998), p. 31; Miller (1984), pp. 138-141; Smith (1958), p. 5.
  14. ↑ Rich (1983), p. 324.
  15. ↑ Brunt (1988), p. 255; Gabba (1976), p. 15; Keppie (1998), p. 77; Smith (1958), pp. 44 f.
  16. ↑ Evans (1994), pp. 82 and 118; Rich (1983), p. 327.
  17. ^ Smith (1958), p. 46.
  18. ↑ Gabba (1976), p. 6. Rich (1983) points out, however, that no ancient author has described these processes and that the "subsidence" is only an attempt to explain modern research in order to reconcile the diverging numbers of different authors bring (pp. 305-314). Livius I, 43 names 11,000 aces, Polybios VI, 19.3 4000 and Cicero Rep. II, 22 1500.
  19. ↑ Brunt (1988), p. 16; Rich (1983), p. 298. Miller (1984) includes the scholarship paid when joining the Legion in the minimum assets, so that in this case everyone could actually serve, even if they owned almost nothing before joining the Legion (p. 21 f.).
  20. ↑ Gabba (1976), p. 4.
  21. ↑ Miller (1984), p. 13. Miller (1984) thinks it is also possible that proletarians were protested during the 1st Punic War (p. 91).
  22. ↑ a b Nigel Pollard, Joanne Berry: The Legions of Rome. Stuttgart 2012, p. 23.
  23. ^ Watson (1958), p. 117.
  24. ↑ Brunt (1988), p. 256.
  25. ↑ Evans (1994), pp. 117f.
  26. ↑ Keppie (1998), p. 63.
  27. ↑ Eduard Nemeth, Florin Fodorean: Roman Military History (History Compact). WBG , Darmstadt 2015, p. 43.