(August 2, 2016 at 3:17 am)Banjo Wrote:(August 1, 2016 at 10:34 pm)Minimalist Wrote: That was what triggered the Marian Reforms of the late 2d century BC.
After Arausio when they went to the cupboard for more soldiers they found it bare. Arming the urban mob seemed like a better solution than letting the Germans overrun Italy even if it did spell the death knell of the republic... which was an oligarchy in reality.
Similar to the situation we 21st century 'murricans find ourselves today.
So many citizens had perished in earlier wars. The second Punic war devastated the "Roman" citizenry. 30,000 at Trasimene, 60,000 at Cannae. By the time Iulius was in Gaul many soldiers were regular folk.
Everything I read underneath is correct too. The Gracci etc.
Rome simply ran out of Romans and then as the empire grew Africans, Greeks, anyone could be in the legion. Later they hired mercenaries. Especially in the east.
That of course was centuries later.
One of the promises Caesar made to form his leadership was to offer his men land, and the citizens jobs whereas they had been "taken" by slaves. Caesar was the "Man of the people" and many fell for it.
Mind you, who else would work the lead mines but slaves?
Later those same soldiers felt cheated, civil wars and strife. Down went the Republic. All hail Octavian.
2nd Punic war didn't deplete Rome's eligible manpower. Rome continued to be able to field fully manned militia army for wars on multiple fronts through the 3rd Punic war. Later social and economic factors alluded to earlier depleted the ranks of yoeman farmers, and also made those who remained unwilling to serve. The transition happened way before Caesar, under Marius at around 110BC.
The Roman army had always consisted of "everyday folk". Prior to Marius, the army consisted of Yoeman farmer citizens who had some small property, and the ability to purchase and hand down through the family a set of soldier's equipments. After Marius the army increasing consisted of the dispossessed citizens who can't pay for their own equipment and relied on the state, and their generals, for basic equipment kit.
Even during caesar's wars, not everyone could be in the legionary army. One has to be a Roman citizen. That usually means one had to have been either a true Roman, or from an Italian city long allied with Rome and whose citizens were granted Roman citizenship at the end of the social wars. The phenomenon of a permenant auxiliary army that consisted of non-citizens didn't really arise until after the start of the empire.
Later Roman legionary army didn't really become open to everyone until around AD210, when serverus granted Roman citizenship to all freemen in the empire.
