The Decline of The Roman Republic

Military Reform and the Rise of Roman Generals

      The formation of the Roman citizen army can be attributed to Gaius Marius (ca. 155-86 BCE) in 100 BCE. Throughout all of previous Roman history, soldiers had been farmers who tilled their fields, sowed their grain, and then went off to war when necessary. The campaigning season ended in the fall, always in tim for the soldiers to return home to gather their harvest.
      Seasonal campaigning had become a problem by Marius's time. Now, there were not as many citizen soldiers who owned land left in Rome. Grain, therefore, was becoming scarcer. The scarcer the grain, the more essential it was for the soldiers who did own land to return to their fields in the fall. At the same time, there were now many landless people normally resident in the city and these people had less reason to return home in the fall.

      Marius realized the size of the problem and created a standing army. A standing army is a permanent force, not one recruited only to meet a particular need. Marius also gave his soldiers a fixed term of service - 16 years in the ranks and four years as a veteranus (reserve soldier) - with the possibility of being called up if needed. After his term of service, the soldier retired with a pension, a gratuity (fixed sum of money), or a plot of land - and he was now allowed to marry.

      The new conditions of service, inlcluding regular pay, the provision of food, and clothing allowances, were only part of the more seeping rearrangments that now affected "Marius's Mules," as the men were called. (This name came about because each man had to carry a standard, minimum amount of equipment when on the march.) Soldiers now served in re-formed legions and, with a new aquila (the eagle insignia), began to develop a fierce pride in belonging to a particular unit.

      The legion was now a heavy infantry unit of about 6000 men, broken into smaller subdivisions called cohorts. There were ten cohorts to a legion with the first and most experienced cohort having a double complement of soldiers. Each cohort had approximately 480 men. These units were further divided into six smaller and more manageable units called centuries with 80 men to a century; each century reported to a centurion, the equivalent of a sergeant. The ultimate division was the contubernium of eight men sharing one tent. There were ten contubernia to a century and two centuries to a maniple. 

      The result of these complicated arrangements was that a recruit would begin his service in the most junior century of the most junior cohort of a legion. As he gained experience, the soldier could work his way through the ranks to the primus pilus, the centurion commanding the first century of the first cohort. Another advantage of this arrangement was that the legion, with its smaller divisions, was easily deployed. The major drawback of the military hierarchy was that ordinary soldiers looked to their generals rater than to the state for security and pensions. By the first century BCE, these were "Sulla's legions" or "Marius's legions," not Rome's legions. 

From Pompey to Caesar

      By now, Romans understood that any men backed by either a powerful army or a band of ruthless, armed thugs could usurp the constitutional government. In quick succession, three men - Pompey the Great (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, 106-48 BCE), Crassus (Marcus Licinius Crassus, 115-53 BCE), and Julius Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar, 100-44 BCE) - came to power. These men were all military adventurers who cared nothing for the Republican constitution by which they had prospered. According to their own private arrangement, they split the government of Rome among themselves in 60 BCE and formed the First Triumvirate, the Rule of the Three Men. 

      Caesar had the armies of Northern Italy. He set about gaining military glory by subjugating the entire population of what is now southern Germany, France, Switzerland, and parts of Austria. Crassus first did his part in Italy by crushing the bloody slave rebellion led by Spartacus in 71 bCE. Six thousand of this ex-gladiator's followers were crucified in a line flanking the Via Appia. Crassus then went off to campaign in Persia (modern-day Iran) against the Parthians. Pompey was already covered in glory from his vanquishing of the pirates in the Mediterranean Sea (67 BCE). 

      Still, no private arrangement could outlive ambition. Crassus was defeated by the Parthians at Carrhae and killed in 53 BCE. Pompey, having become the fervent guardian of senatorial privilege, came to oppose Caesar and agreed with a senatorial demand in 50 BCE that Caesar disband his army. Caesar realized that disbanding his army would leave him defenseless and would amount to suicide. He committed an illegal act, and in January 49 BCE crossed the stream known as the Rubicon with his army and therefore entered Italian territory. Pompey hurried to the defense of the constitutional, senatorial government but was beaten back on all fronts. He was forced to retreat to Alexandria in Egypt, where his army was defeated and he was decapitated.

      in 46 BCE, Julius Caesar, the last surviving member of the Triumvirate, had himself appointed dictator for ten years.  In 45 BCE, the appointment was extended to life. In the same year, he became Pontifex Maximus (Chief Priest) and assumed virtually all responsibility for decision making. Caesar was now behaving more like a king than a guardian of the Republic. He was even offered a golden crown by a young supporter named Marc Antony (Marcus Antonius, 93-30 BCE). Caesar's glory was short-lived. On 15 March 44 BCE, a day known as the Ides of March, several self-proclaimed defenders of liberty - Brutus, Cassius, and other senate conspirators - converged on the dictator in Pompey's theater and stabbed him to death. 

Writing: ECHOES from the past published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.