How did Marius's changes to the military change Rome?

Answer 1

Marius scrapped the military levy and the property qualification to be legible to the levy. Prior to his reform the Roman soldiers were peasant smallholders who went back to their farms after the military campaigning season. Marius made joining the army voluntary and recruited anyone, including the landless poor. He also supplied the military equipment himself. Prior to this the soldiers had to pay and provide for their requirement themselves - this is why the soldiers were propertied farmers; they who could afford this. Thus, Marius made it affordable for the landless poor to join the army. The landless poor flocked to the army for a career, a pay (pay for the solders had been introduced before Marius' reforms) and for a sense of belonging and of being taken care of which they did not experience in the city. Marius also introduced the grant of either a plot of land to farm or a lump sum of money on discharge to provide a further incentive to voluntarily join the army. These changes were in response recruitment shortages.

Marius set the period of military service at 16 years. This was not the begging of the standing Roman professional army yet. That occurred later, under the reign of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Marius did not establish recruitment by the Roman state. The military commanders levied legions as an when they needed. This made the soldiers loyal to their commanders, rather than the Roman state. During the civil wars which tore the Roman Republic, the warring commandeers on both sides could recruit their troops at their will. Recruitment became organised by the state under Augustus.

Marius changed the structure and formation of the legions. He did away with the heavy and the light infantry and armed all the soldiers the same way. He did away with the manipular formation and replaced it with the cohorts. This created a fully articulated legion design more capable of maneuvering and responding promptly to the orders of its leaders. He also made the legions more mobile by making the soldiers carry much of their supplies and their their and camping equipment with a forked stick to carry their load on their shoulders. This shortened the baggage trains which had became overly long.