Gaius Marius

Who is Gaius Marius? Gaius Marius life started when he was born in 158 or 157 BC, in Cerate (Casemare) Arpinum in a small town in Latium. The existence and knowledge of his parents are somewhat minimal but his Parents were very modest social status wise and his father was very hardworking to sustain his family's name. The early inhabitants of his hometown had been the Volcsci, Italian people who migrated from the Apennines. He was considered an outsider due to him not growing up properly at Arpinum but in the small village of Cirrhaeton. His upbringing later on showed much intuition and motivation of learning being very passionate about things he desired to learn. 

Marius was a very stubborn individual when it came to learning Greek or to engage with Greek literature at all. Later in his life he still refused Greek in any matter of importance even if it came to dealings with his Greek speaking political counterparts. He was a very stubborn person very similar to someone he seemed to be taking after another Italian outsider, M. Porcius Cato the Censor. Marius, like many other young Italian men, embarked on military service from a relatively early age. Some of his best traits that he had though was his way with people especially his troops. He was able to have soldiers be extremely loyal to him and to the Roman Republic. He also emphasized a lot about discipline whether it came the general people and his policies he wanted to implement, and his troops making sure they are in line with the cause.

Gaius Marius was elected on the equestrian and popular vote to succeed the former general Metellus. Marius changed the way the Roman army functioned in several ways. He used some unorthodox ways for recruitment such as recruiting poor men. His reasoning behind it was that he believed it helped the bond between the troops and their commanders. Gaius Marius also revised the military training and equipment that shifted the Roman army's course of action. Marius would find the weaknesses of his enemies and exploit them with different strategies like the Cavalry strategy. Marius did have a foe named Sulla who did run him out of Rome starting the Jurguntha War. Marius was attacked while in Rome and eventually had to flee to Africa, although he took back Rome when he came back with his army that he assembled there. Taking back Rome people noticed that Gaius Marius was wronged by Sulla and deserved the glory. He was elected seven time as a consul being trusted by the general people and the senate. The senate and people believed that he was best fit with his many triumphs and his indisputable leading. Being elected seven times to the consul proves how high many people thought of him Gaius Marius sadly died shortly after he was elected back into the Consul. He died 86 BCE same time he was elected into the consul before he was able to implement any of his plans, due to his bad health and age.