Marius, during the time of his Consulship changed both the how the Roman
army operated and its interior structure. The army he molded is the army that
many associate with the Romans, the kind that has been romanticized in films
for decades.
The most significant changes were to the structure of the army, how it was formed, armed and operated.
Firstly, Marius did away with the landowning requirement, opening enrollment to all Romans. This accomplished a few things: first, it allowed for the large influx of soldiers needed for his campaigns. The poor and landless filled the ranks, people who did not have a need to stay with their lands for fear of losing livelihood or being dispossessed while abroad (2). This also ended up a net boon for Roman society as a whole, by siphoning the poor and future-less out of the cities and into a productive role.
This made the Roman war machine overall a much more flexible beast. The soldiers within the army had nothing to go home to, which made them far easier to bring abroad than the landowner class of soldiers had been. These were career men, who could be expected to fight over twenty years within the army (1). As one might expect, this led to a much more effective fighting force, as the soldiers within it were not temporary volunteers: they were professionals, dedicated to their task for an extended period of time.
(Roman soldiers on the move!)
The most significant changes were to the structure of the army, how it was formed, armed and operated.
Firstly, Marius did away with the landowning requirement, opening enrollment to all Romans. This accomplished a few things: first, it allowed for the large influx of soldiers needed for his campaigns. The poor and landless filled the ranks, people who did not have a need to stay with their lands for fear of losing livelihood or being dispossessed while abroad (2). This also ended up a net boon for Roman society as a whole, by siphoning the poor and future-less out of the cities and into a productive role.
This made the Roman war machine overall a much more flexible beast. The soldiers within the army had nothing to go home to, which made them far easier to bring abroad than the landowner class of soldiers had been. These were career men, who could be expected to fight over twenty years within the army (1). As one might expect, this led to a much more effective fighting force, as the soldiers within it were not temporary volunteers: they were professionals, dedicated to their task for an extended period of time.
(Roman soldiers on the move!)
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