The life of Julius Caesar was deeply influenced by one of Rome's most famous generals and politicians - and Caesar's uncle by marriage - Gaius Marius. When Caesar was an impressionable child, the remarkable Marius had been Consul of Rome six times; he was the most famous and brilliantly successful of the Republic's generals; he was called the "third Founder of Rome" after saving Italy from the combined allied armies of the Cimbri and Teutones in 102-101 BC. The impact of Marius upon the young Caesar will always be debated but his impact upon the history of Rome is far clearer. Without Marius' ambition, his military successes, his far-reaching reforms to the Army, and finally his willingness to embrace any kind of factional turmoil to achieve his political ends, it is unlikely that Caesar's subsequent career would have existed.

Over the centuries, Marius' glorious contributions to Roman arms were less remembered than the decline and violence which attended his last years; thus a workday historian like Velleius Paterculus could write, over a century later,

Gaius Marius was a novus homo (a "new man"), of equestrian family but without any Senatorial ancestors. Born c. 157 BC in an Italian countryside town - Arpinum, in southern Latium - Marius' family was apparently locally important, with some rudimentary client relationships with greater families in Rome. This would later provide young Marius support in his attempts, as an outsider, to break into the inner power structure of the Republic. By roughly 134 BC, Marius had attracted notice serving with the Roman army at Numantia under the great Scipio Aemilianus, grandson of Scipio Africanus and among the most powerful men in Rome. Marius apparently viewed soldiering as a stepladder to greater things. Marius served as quaestor in 123 and, with the help of the powerful Metelli interests, ran for election as Tribune in 119, having sought the position unsuccessfully in either 121 or 120. Marius came to power following the tempests arising from the rise and fall of the Gracchi. Gaius Gracchus had only been murdered in 122 BC and the Gracchi's would-be reforms still reverberated through Rome's political structure. Marius apparently chose, from the beginning of his political career, to follow the popularis' themes supported by the murdered brothers. This brought him eventually into conflict with his patrons, the Metelli. One of his actions, as Tribune, was to pass laws forbidding inspection of ballots to prevent intimidation of the voters by the powerful oligarchic families who controlled the Senate and Rome. This led to a breach with the Metelli.

The Forum at the Time of Marius. The Senate and Assembly (circular) upper left corner.

Not intimidated, Marius began clawing his way higher up the cursus honorum without Optimate support. He ran unsuccessfully for the positions of curule aedile and plebeian aedile. Without the patronage of the great families, and with his reputation for not accepting the limitations of a "new man," Marius struggled to the position as praetor for 115 and was promptly accused by his enemies of electoral corruption, although he was later acquitted. He spent the year 114 in Rome in an apparently quiet praetorship. As propraetor, he was then sent to govern Further Spain, a backwater of the Empire, where he apparently pacified some minor tribal revolts and added to his already significant personal fortune. Returning to Rome in 113 or 112, Marius did not attempt to run for the Consulship, the next step in a successful career. Now middle-aged, he had held a succession of offices, received some notice for his military abilities, and deeply offended some of the most prominent Romans who picked and chose their protégés. Now, however, Marius' fortunes were in every sense about to change.

FIRST MAN IN ROME

In 110 BC, Marius was able to arrange for a brilliant marriage with Julia, sister of the future Caesar's father, Gaius, and thus his future aunt. From an impeccable but decayed patrician family of unimpeachable Roman credentials, this branch of the Caesars had lost political prominence. It is difficult not to wonder why so socially proud a family as the Julii would choose to ally itself with a man without grace, background, or education: perhaps Marius' wealth was an inducement. In any event, after the marriage the fortunes of the Caesars began to climb and Marius gained entrée into Roman circles that had hitherto been closed to him. Marius' son ("young Marius," and Caesar's elder cousin) was born in 109/108 BC.

Apparently Marius' breach with his patrons, the Metelli, had healed: in 109, Q. Caecilius Metellus, that year's Consul, chose Marius as his senior legate in the African campaign against the great Numantian king, Jugurtha. The war against Jugurtha had dragged on since 113, headed by various Senators without notable success. As a legate, Marius would serve Metellus as second in command. Sallust notes that Marius completely outshone his rather plodding superior. While in Africa, Marius had decided to run for Consul. When he approached Metellus for leave, he was haughtily rebuffed. Marius simply went behind Metellus' back, contacting Senators and other potential supporters with the hint that he, Marius, could defeat Jugurtha with half the armies Metellus possessed. At the same time, Marius worked hard to ingratiate himself with his legions, partly by relaxing troop discipline. This oblique approaches succeeded: Marius won election as Consul for 107. He had presented himself to the electorate as the blunt, honest soldier of Rome, surrounded by powerful patricians were who both inept and corrupt at leading Rome's armies. When the Senate attempted to confirm Metellus in his governorship in Africa, Marius was canny enough to try a procedural ploy that secured him direct election to the position of African commander-in-chief through a special election. Thus Marius, as Consul, assumed command of the legions fighting Jugurtha, while Metellus was quietly retired, granted a Triumph, and the showy title of "Numidicus."

REFORMS IN THE LEGIONS

Now commander-in-chief of Rome's African legions, Marius came face to face with a problem that would eventually result in his greatest contribution to Roman legionary organization. From the very beginning of its history, Rome had accepted only soldiers of means, capable of purchasing their own armor and supplies and, as owners of land and property, having a financial stake in the success of Roman arms. Any Roman male who did not meet the property and land qualifications was not permitted to serve. The armies of the Republic had been almost continuously at war for the entire second century, from the Second Punic War to the wars against Jugurtha. Rome and her Italian allies had been systematically denuded of suitable manpower to fight for Rome's new, imperial, obligations. Marius, who probably had little real understanding of the earthshaking implications of his idea, decided to go for manpower to the despised capite censi, the "head count"; in other words, the illiterate, landless, volatile Roman mob. For generations, small farmers had been displaced in Italy as wealthy senators and knights bought up their land and put slaves to work it. Since the Gracchi, thousands of displaced former landholders had swelled the city of Rome. The landless had fought before in Rome's armies in minor, supportive positions. Marius proposed to give them all full-time employment.

Historians of Rome agree that this single action, which took poor men and put them under a great general who promised them booty, land upon retirement, and forged an emotional relationship with them, created a whole new type of soldier, loyal not to Rome's institutions, but to the status and wealth his general could provide. In addition, having no homes or land to go back to, the new soldiers tended to become career professionals, in the legions for 20-25 years before retirement. Marius' new legions prefigured Caesar's troops crossing the Rubicon, the later Praetorian Guard who made and broke Emperors, and the eventual empowerment of the Roman legions to choose and control the autocrats of state. All this, however, was buried in the future. At the moment, in 107 BC, Marius simply ignored the law requiring that Roman soldiers own anywhere from 3,000 to 11,000 sestertii in property, and filled his armies from the milling Roman mob.

In addition, he made the kind of pragmatic changes in organization and weaponry that shows his quality as a practical soldier. Marius altered the way that the pilum (the throwing spear of the common soldier) was fixed to the shaft; this caused the point to break off upon impact, which meant Rome's enemies could not return the spear against her legions. Marius altered baggage arrangements, insisting that his soldiers carry tents, weapons, and food upon their backs - hence the so-called "Marius' Mules" - rather than slow down the legions by endless baggage trains. Pliny stated that the earlier Republican army had five standards: eagle, wolf, Minotaur, horse, and boar. Marius elevated the Eagle - symbol of Jupiter Optimus Maximus - to the universal legionary standard, which fostered a subconscious loyalty and pride among the common soldiers. Most importantly, Marius is credited with switching from the maniple to the cohort as the core tactical element of the legion. The maniple had consisted of four various units of soldiers, each bearing different weapons, and thus used differently in combat. The cohort eliminated the more poorly equipped units of the maniple and, essentially, permitted the state to arm all legionaries with similar equipment. Rather than the complex subgroups of the maniple, the cohort functioned upon six identical units of 80 soldiers each, or 480 men to a cohort. Rather than forming in long lines, the cohorts combined in lines of three cohorts each, in depth, which permitted autonomy to each unit and flexibility in formation. Finally, Marius began promoting officers from within the ranks, rather than utilizing political or social connections, which vastly improved the quality of the centurions and other officers leading the legions on a day-to-day basis.

FROM JUGURTHA TO AQUAE SEXTUS

At some point in his rise to the Consulship, Marius had met the impoverished, ambitious, ruthless young patrician, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who was serving as his subordinate quaestor when Marius returned to Numidia in late 107 BC. A series of campaigns against Jugurtha forced the battle lines into the kingdom of Mauretania in 107 and 106. Sulla proved himself both capable and ingenious as Marius' second-in-command, and it was Sulla's bold stroke that, in effect, gave Marius the victory he craved. In 105, Bocchus, king of Mauretania (and father-in-law to Jugurtha, with whom he had allied) apparently sent out feelers to the Romans that he would betray Jugurtha in return for the blessings of peace and Roman support. Sulla, at Bocchus' insistence, traveled alone and behind the lines to meet with the disgruntled king and managed to pull off a coup d'etat by which Bocchus betrayed Jugurtha and handed him over to Sulla. The war was over. Although Marius, as commanding general, received the credit, it was clear that the clever subordinate had been largely responsible for the victory by intrigue as much as force of arms; this would later sour the relationship between Marius and Sulla, particularly when Sulla let it be known that the credit for the victory should have been his.

Partly through his heroic triumph over Jugurtha, Marius was reelected Consul in absentia in 105 BC, although still in Africa. Laws prohibiting holding successive consulships were apparently repealed, because Marius served in an unprecedented series of five Consulships from 104-100 BC. During this period, Marius was also given command of Roman armies in the north, against the invading Germans. Sources suggest that Marius, when younger, had learned of a prophecy that he would be Consul of Rome seven times, an unheard-of prediction; in any event, by 100 BC, he had already served as Consul for an unprecedented six terms.

While Roman eyes focused on the Jugurthine War, a crisis of major proportions was brewing in northern Gaul. Southern Gaul (centered about the town of Narbo, now Narbonne) had been incorporated into the Roman Empire in 121 BC and known simply as "The Province" (modern Provence). Northern Gaul was unpacified. The incursion of the Germanic Cimbri tribe in 109, and the defeat of M. Junius Silanus and his army, had unsettled both northern and "pacified" southern Gaul. Further reverses, including the defeat of Laenas' army, which had to humiliate itself before its enemies by passing "under the yoke," continued in 107 and 106. Roman commanders quarreled and refused to support each other; the situation became, militarily, increasingly unstable. Due to the infighting between the Roman generals Caepio and Mallius, the Cimbri destroyed Caepio's army, then Mallius' in October, 105, at Arausio (modern Orange), by all accounts an utter disaster in terms of military coordination. It was said that 80,000 Romans died in the debacle, in which Roman armies were stranded with a river at their backs. The reality of the quarreling, petty jealousies of the patrician commander, Caepio, refusing to cooperate with the lower-class Mallius, now exposed Italy to direct invasion from the hundreds of thousands of Gauls and Germans poised on Italy's northern frontiers. Thanks to Arausio, and the fact that Marius' legions were still in Africa, Rome's borders stood defenseless to the invaders. There were emotional memories of the horrors of the Sack of Rome by the Gauls in 391 BC.

As elected Consul, Marius returned to Rome in January, 104, promptly celebrated his Triumph over Jugurtha (who walked in the procession), and made preparations to depart immediately for the crisis in the north. By this time the Cimbri had marched into Spain and were dissipating their energies in plunder. Marius took Sulla with him as quaestor. Luckily, the Gallo-Germanic armies did not invade and Marius had precious months for training and military reorganization. Skirmishing followed; it was not until 102 and the great battle of Aquae Sextiae (near modern Aix-en-Provence), that Marius destroyed an vast barbarian army of Teutones and Ambrones. The defeat of the invaders was assured when Consul Q. Lutatius Catulus and his subordinate, Sulla, fought and won battles at Vercellae in 101. The invading armies were so reduced that it would be two generations before they again seriously troubled Rome. Sulla's contribution to Catulus' victory had been critical. There was an obvious alienation between the three men as to who could claim credit for the victory, although Marius agreed to celebrate a joint triumph with Catulus.

INTO THE POLITICAL WILDERNESS

Marius returned from the north in triumph, but his last year as Consul in 100 BC - the year in which, coincidentally, his nephew, Julius Caesar, was born - was disastrous politically. Already on the battlefield he had made impromptu - and illegal - grants of citizenship to Italian soldiers fighting under him. He also demanded extensive lands for resettlement and reward of his veterans, with the assistance of a tame tribune, Saturninus, who had assisted Marius in finding land for his African veterans in 103. Saturninus was a populist demagogue in the new tradition. Whatever plans the two men hoped to foment regarding veteran resettlement, land grants, and grants of citizenship, dissolved in personal animosity and jealousy as Saturninus attempted to climb to personal power on the reputation of the aging Marius. Marius, never either subtle or skillful politically, had become ham-handed in forcing through laws using political manipulation and violence. He was losing credibility. His demands led to the enforced exile of Metellus, with whom he had fought bitterly and for which he was blamed by the Optimates. Marius turned against Saturninus in 99 and this led to rioting and, eventually, the murder of the Tribune and his supporters inside the Senate house, when opponents pelted the men to death with roof tiles. When the Senate, against all his efforts, recalled Metellus from exile, Marius took a voluntary leave of absence and traveled to the East, where he met with Mithridates VI. It is said that Marius spoke so tellingly to Mithridates that the king abandoned plans for harassing Rome's territories further, which only enhanced Marius' reputation in many quarters.

For the balance of the '90's, Marius was in the political wilderness, the former savior of Rome, now emphatically aging and out of power. Returning to Rome, Marius attempted to regain control of events behind the scenes in the turbulent decade where demagogues and reformers repeatedly fought in the streets of Rome. In the meantime, Sulla's military reputation and power grew, much to the jealous Marius' rage. It is said that Marius was beside himself when Bocchus I tried to dedicate a statue showing Jugurtha's surrender - to Sulla - on the capitol.

THE FINAL CONSULATE, 86 BC

By 90 BC, with the beginnings of the "Social War" (in which Italian city-states, refused full participation in Roman citizenship, violently rebelled) Marius sought command only to be reduced to serving under lesser men. There were rumors that the 67-year-old Marius, who may have been suffering from age and illness, was losing his touch. In 88, the eastern war against Mithridates again flared up and, in spite of Marius' efforts, Sulla was given command of Rome's legions. Operating through the Tribune Sulpicius Rufus, Marius sought to transfer the Asian command to himself in Sulla's absence. Sulla, determined not to lose the political plum to his old commander and enemy, marched on Rome with his legions to destroy the Marians and confirm his authority. Sulpicius' measures were rescinded amidst scenes of bitter factional violence. Marius' party fell from power and fled separately with Sulla's killers close behind them.

After further near-escapes, Marius made his way to Cercina, a colony of his veterans off the coast of Africa. Here he bided his time.

In 87, while Sulla and the armies were fighting Mithridates in Greece, Cinna was dismissed from the Consulship. Joining with the exiled Marius, who landed in Italy, raised an army, and marched on Rome. Ostia was sacked and Rome recaptured: Cinna and Marius then forced through their elections as joint Consuls in 86 (Marius for the seventh time) and Marius was set to take command from Sulla in the East, at the age of 71. Possibly unbalanced by this point, Marius ordered the massacre of political enemies of every stripe. Many of the dead were largely bystanders, their severed heads staked around the Forum's Rostra. Possibly to the mass relief of all, Marius died only 17 days into his seventh Consulship in 86. By his bloody proscriptions against his perceived enemies, Marius created a precedent for organized factional murder that would be improved upon by his old lieutenant, Sulla, when Sulla inevitably came back into power. Simultaneously, Marius' use of tribunes as stalking-horses, to use mob tactics to force his policies into law, set the worst of examples for the turbulent decades that followed. When Marius died, Julius Caesar, his nephew, was roughly 14 years old. In the end, Plutarch paints a bleak picture of the great general:

There is a certain symmetry to the careers of Marius and his nephew, Caesar. The extent to which the sympathies of his uncle influenced Caesar can only be imagined. Like Marius, Caesar would, from the beginning, choose the side of the popularis rather than the Optimates (although Caesar, with his lineage, could have chosen the conservative side which always despised Marius, the "new man.") Like Marius, Caesar used Tribunes to force his laws past a recalcitrant Senate. Like Marius, Caesar made his reputation in fighting and destroying Gallic armies. Whereas Marius felt it was fated that he served seven times as Consul of Rome, Caesar also had an almost Sybilline confidence in his own great destiny. Each was idolized by his army, although it seems never to have occurred to Marius to use his legions as a tool of his political power, as Caesar did. Each valued wealth primarily as a means to political ends. As he rose to power, Caesar made political points by honoring his uncle and bringing back into the Capitol the glorious trophies Marius had won against Rome's enemies. The difference between the harsh, vengeful, Marius and the elegant, educated, self-contained young patrician could hardly be more striking. However, each has come down to history tarred with the violence their ambitions conjured against the Roman Republic. It is sufficient to say that Caesar helped make his own career on the greatness of his uncle's, as the young Octavian, surviving Caesar, also did.

Sources:

The bust shown at the beginning of the article is traditionally said to be of Marius, but no confirmed contemporary images of him have come down to us. Images of Roman soldiers by kind permission of RedRampant.com.