Marius (157 - 86 B.C.) :
Origins and Early Career of Marius:
As tribune, Marius proposed a bill that effectively limited the influence of aristocrats on elections. In passing the bill, he temporarily alienated the Metelli. As a consequence, he failed in his bids to become aedile, although he did (barely) manage to become praetor.
Marius and the Family of Julius Caesar:
Marius as Military Legate:
Marius Runs for Consul:
Since Marius needed more troops to defeat Jugurtha, he instituted new policies that were to change the complexion of the army. Instead of requiring a minimum property qualification of his soldiers, Marius recruited poor soldiers who would require a grant of property of him and the senate upon ending their service.
Since the senate would oppose distribution of these grants, Marius would need (and did receive) the troops' support.
Capturing Jugurtha was harder than Marius had thought, but he won, thanks to a man who would soon cause him endless trouble. Marius' quaestor, the patrician Lucius Cornelius Sulla, induced Bocchus, Jugurtha's father-in-law, to betray the Numidian. Since Marius was in command, he received the honor of the victory, but Sulla maintained that he deserved the credit. Marius returned to Rome with Jugurtha at the head of a victory procession at the beginning of 104. Jugurtha was then killed in prison.
Marius Runs for Consul, Again:
From 104 to 100 he was repeatedly elected consul because only as consul would he be in command of the military. Rome needed Marius to defend its borders from Germanic, Cimbri, Teutoni, Ambrones, and Swiss Tigurini tribes, following the death of 80,000 Romans at the Arausio River in 105 BC. In 102-101, Marius defeated them at Aquae Sextiae and, with Quintus Catulus, on the Campi Raudii.
Primary Source
Plutarch's Life of Marius
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