Archaeologists Find Athenian Naval Base

[Anomalocaris]

Yeah but the patricians  bought up all the land in Italy that was decent. Those soldiers had to move on. Of course the army changed over time and was a force crom the empire. Not Rome. Very different soldiers to those commanded by  Caesar.

The main difference happened before Caesar.   Under both Caesar and the emperors, the army consisted of long serving professional soldiers who mostly came from the bottom of the social ladder, who sought military service as a means to a more secure social and economic position in later life (sounds familiar to Americans?), who owes absolutely nothing to social and political stability in the empire, and who benefits if their own general usurps the throne.  Sure, under Caesar most legionaries were Italians.  Later they would be mostly provencial.  But the outlook and motivations of the caesar's Italians and commodus' provincials were the same.

But prior to Marius around 40 years before Caesar, things were very different.  The army consisted of what is essentially a militia force drawn as needed from the properties classes of the Roman republic.  These men didn't need the army for financial and social security in later life.  They served because they owned property, and as a result, their family welfare owned its security to the security of the Roman state, which safeguarded those rights and properties.  These men had little incentive to favor revolts and disruption to the established social and political order, such as their own general ursurping the throne.  They were there to defend the established social and political order because they already had a passable position in those orders, and were more likely to lose out the to win if the social and political order were shattered.  These legionaries were mostly not just Italian, but Roman.   Furthermore, in outlook, they were totally different from later legionaries, whether Italian or provencial.