Gaius Marius

The Ancient Roman republic lasted many years from 509 BCE all the way to 27 BCE during such time Rome was nearly destroyed many times with people like Hannibal, Spartacus and other non foreigners like Sulla for example. But the kind of destruction that Hannibal was ready to bring was nothing compared to what Gaius Marius dished out. Gaius Marius was a Roman general and politician. Marius’ fame soars with him winning many outstanding victories in Africa while acting as general of the legion there. He is soon commissioned to fight the oncoming barbarians that have been pillaging the north, northeastern borders of Rome for some time. There he is given the rank of consul and his time into the patrician politics really begin and the reforms

He also changed the way they fought and their mindset towards their fellow legionnaires and their legatus. Marius was said to train with his men, march from time to time, eat with them and speak with them which earned him the men’s trust and respect, their loyalty and their swords which meant they were loyal to him and Rome second, this is also seen later in the story of Rome when Julius Caesar had the loyalty of his legions and in the end that let him cross the Rubicon without fear of treachery (At least now). The idea of the legions being more loyal to their legatus goes even further down the timeline where there is a constant “Emperor” emerging trying to take control during the “Year of Five Emperors”. The loyalty to the generals and not the country is a recurring theme that Marius

The empire of Rome had a slow fall due to its poor leaders, the republic of Rome had a very quick death due to the corruption of its leaders, the empire had one man to control all and it would usually be overwhelming and the republic had a great many “leaders” all whom wanted to be the leader-iest leader of all the other leaders. Corruption and power are one and the same, it takes a great person, a legend almost to be able to maintain absolute power without absolute corruption. Alexander the great was a great leader because he had wars to fight and people to kill he had a singular goal. Ramases II was a great leader since he had a very poor Egypt to return to its former status. These goals help a leader to remain calm and away from their inner thoughts, but when your inner thoughts are screaming old men and power hungry, conceited “lad” it would not take long before someone gets mad enough to silence the rest of these voices. Marius did not try to reach for the level of “silence” that his rival Sulla did nor did he go near the levels of future Emperors to rid them of the noise, Marius was not the source of the corruption in politics but he was a great helper to