Marius and the Origin of Client Armies, 107–100 B.C.E.

A new kind of leader arose to meet the need to combat slave revolts and foreign invasions in the late second and early first centuries B.C.E. The “new man” was an upper-class man without a consul among his ancestors, whose ability led him to fame, fortune, and—his ultimate goal—the consulship.

Gaius Marius (c. 157–86 B.C.E.), from the equites class, set the pattern for the influential “new man.” Gaining fame for his brilliant military record, Marius won election as a consul for 107 B.C.E. Marius’s success as a commander, first in North Africa and next against German tribes attacking southern France and Italy, led the people to elect him consul six times, breaking all tradition.

For his victories, the Senate voted Marius a triumph, Rome’s ultimate military honor. In this ceremony, crowds cheered as he rode a chariot through Rome’s streets. His soldiers shouted obscene jokes about him, to ward off the evil eye at his moment of supreme glory. Despite Marius’s triumph, the optimates never accepted him as an equal. His support came from the common people, whom he had won over with his revolutionary reform of entrance requirements for the army. Previously, only men with property could usually enroll as soldiers. Marius opened the ranks to proletarians, men who had no property and could not afford weapons. For them, serving in the army meant an opportunity to better their life by acquiring plunder and a grant of land. (See “Document 5.2: Polybius on Roman Military Discipline.”)

Marius’s reform created armies that were more loyal to their commander than to the republic. Poor Roman soldiers behaved like clients following their commander as patron, who benefited them with plunder. They in turn supported his political ambitions. Commanders after Marius used client armies to advance their careers more ruthlessly than he had, accelerating the republic’s internal conflict.