On Marius’ Military Reform

Gaius Marius(157BC-86BC) was a famous Roman military strategist and statesman. His military reform had made very significant impact on the political and military system of Rome. Facing the problems of army manpower lacking and the decline of the corps’ combating ability, Marius seeked to alleviate the situation through military reform and consummating the organization of the army. Finally strengthened the state apparatus of the Roman Republic. However, this reform fastened the decline and fall of the Republic of Rome objectively. After the reform, the privatization of soldiers is universal, the army began to become the tools of the ambitionist to gain political power, and the subsequent emergence of the Sura dictatorship, Kaiser dictatorship is the direct consequence of this reform. Although Marius did not overthrow the consciousness of Republic, his reforms did push the transformation of from Republic Rome to imperial Rome.The thesis consists of three parts:the introduction, the text and conclusion.The text is divided into three chapters to discuss the background, content and the influence of Marius’military reform.The first chapter mainly analyzes the historical background of Marius’ military reform. At the mid-second century BC, Rome became the superpower of the entire Mediterranean world. While with the continuous expansion of its territory, the internal contradictions of Rome society began to intensify.The concentration of land, manpower shortages and the declining of Corps combating strength became the most important and urgent issues that must be addressed. The Gracchis tried to ease the situation of manpower shortage through the revival of peasant economy,but failed. While the Jugurtha war discovered the corrupt Roman political and military system thoroughly. All of these called for the emergence of a new reform.The second chapter describes the specific content of Marius military reform, which is the core of this article. Faced with the problems rose at that time, Marius tried to t improve and strengthen the army’s power in three aspects:the military recruiting system, the Legion organization and the military discipline. Through the implementation of mercenary, wing system, improving Corps equipment, set up eagles badges and so on, many of the measures has appeared in the army was standardized and a number of innovative policies against the military problems also came into effect. Through these reforms, the manpower shortage problem of the Roman army was alleviated, the Legion combating force was greatly improved and the Roman military system was also promoted.The third chapter has carried on the comprehensive explanation and research on the effects of the military reform.Through the reform, Marius realized the purpose of alleviating the lack of soldiers and improving army’s fighting capacity,which would turn into the country’s powerful weapon of expanding territory. But the reform also has brought some negative influence, the land allocating problems of the veterans has become an important factor that affected the political stability at the end of Roman republic period. At the same time, this reform objectively promoted the emergence of privatization of army and military dictatorship, which accelerated the transformation of the republic Roman to imperial Roman. This reform can be regarded as a necessity of that era, which adapted to the need of the history.