to victories, or sated them with plunder. The oligarchy could no longer reckon with confidence upon the army, which before was levied or disbanded at its pleasure, and commanded only by its nominees. Ambitious leaders were not slow to profit by the chances offered. Marius indeed won the affections of his men by sharing every hardship with them, and by consummate mastery of every detail of duty (Jug. 63). Others stooped to more questionable means, relaxed the bonds of discipline, and bid for popularity by largess and indulgence, increasing thus the licence of peace and the cruelties of war (Plutarch, Sulla, 11). 4o. The soldiers of fortune who now crowded to the camp began to look for some provision when their term of service had expired. They cast greedy eyes upon the state domain or public land which was the prize of conquest, and their old commander strained all his influence to push their claims at Rome. In earlier days colonies had been sent out from time to time to guard disputed frontiers, or to satisfy the landless poor, but now they took the form of retiring pensions for the veterans. Grants of land were made by thousands for this purpose, with scant regard sometimes for the rights of former occupants or neighbours; comrades in the ranks settled side by side upon the farms, where they wearied often of the homely labour, flocked together to the standard of their former leader, or to some partisan who used the same rallying cry. 5o. The general whose best years were spent in active service in the field had little time to gain experience of the shifting currents of the party politics of Rome, or skill in the debates of the senate or the forum. But there was sure to be some statesman or intriguer, ready to make common cause with a great soldier, to urge his claims upon the public ear, to propose the grant of a triumph in his honour, or a colonial settlement for his veterans, or an extraordinary commission when he wished again for service. The league of Marius with Saturninus was the beginning of a fatal system which degraded alike the statesman and the soldier, and made the tribunate a mere tool of military ambition, instead of a bulwark of constitutional rights. The influence of the nobles certainly had suffered while the military institutions were being thus remodelled. But privilege and class-distinctions were still amply represented in the service. Marius perhaps had risen from the ranks, and in the Civil Wars a few adventurers may have pushed their way to place and fortune in spite of their ignoble birth. But the soldiers (gregarii milites) commonly aspired to nothing higher than the post of a Centurion: the officers were drawn wholly from the ruling classes, and the lines were sharply drawn between the separate careers. Senators and knights had once served in the cavalry which was attached to all the legions, but this practice had fallen long ago into disuse; volunteers of lower rank first took their places, and at last that arm of the service was left exclusively to the dependant races, like the auxiliary cohorts which were markedly distinguished from the regular infantry of Rome. The other changes that were introduced affected the tactics of the army rather than its spirit or its relations to the civil powers. 6o. The four different grades of infantry appear no more after the Jugurthine war; the three lines of the legion—the hastati, principes, triarii, with their difference of rank and armour, based upon the old distinctions of the Servian constitution, disappear about this time, with the velites who served beside them. The light armed troops are drawn exclusively from the allies, and the legion becomes a uniform and compact mass. 7o. Ten cohorts now replace the thirty maniples of earlier times. To withstand the weight and rush of the first rapid onset of the Cimbri it was needful perhaps to draw up the lines in closer order. The old system with its regular intervals between the maniples was better suited for manœuvres in the face of disciplined enemies with cautious tactics, but the Northern tribes relied on an impetuous charge and overpowering numbers (cf. Marquardt, Rom. St. 2. 422). wars. 8o. The pilum had become the common weapon of the homogeneous legion. It was modified by Marius for the Cimbric Of the two pegs which fastened the spike of metal to the handle, one was now made of wood which snapped under the weight of the spear when it was hurled, so that it either became bent and useless, or dragged heavily after the shield on which it struck, encumbering the movement of the bearer. 9o. The legion, which had now become a compact mass, was furnished with a common ensign. There had been separate standards (signa) for the maniples before, but the silver eagle which we read of in the ranks of Catiline (Cat. 59. 3) was set up by Marius for the whole legion, and became henceforth the symbol of the soldier's duties, and the object almost of his religious worship. 10o. One point remains which shows his minute attention to details. A great general combines wide-reaching plans with special thought about the particulars of execution; the Roman commander gave his name to a contrivance by which his men might carry their food and clothing with more ease. These were bound in separate bundles which were strapped to thin strips of wood, and carried on the prongs of a long fork. This was then thrown across the shoulders on the march, as we may see pourtrayed at Rome on the bas-reliefs of Trajan's column ('Muli Mariani dici solent a Mario instituti, cujus milites in furca interposita tabella varicosius onera sua portare assueverunt,' Festus). |