Title: What Caused the End of the Roman Republic? | History Hit
Headings: What Caused the End of the Roman Republic?
What Caused the End of the Roman Republic?
Simon Elliott
Roma invicta
The coming of the Cimbrians
How did Marius reform the Roman military?
1. It proved easy for the warlords to build huge armies
2. Marius removed the property requirement to serve in the legions
3. The creation of many new legions increased the opportunity for promotion
4. There was money to be made for the legionaries over and above their salaries if their warlords were successful

Content: The Republic suffered defeat after defeat, some catastrophic. Panic gripped Rome, with the phrase terror cimbricus being used to describe the mood of the people. Then in 107 BC a saviour emerged. This was Gaius Marius, elected consul for the first time that year, the first of seven times he held the office. He surveyed the debris of Rome’s military response to the crisis and concluded that the main issue was the organisation of the legions themselves. He felt them too unwieldy for this new kind of warfare, fighting hoards of ‘barbarians’ marauding across the countryside in their many thousands. He therefore resolved to turn each individual legion into a self-contained fighting force, with little or no supply train. In that way they could manoeuvre at a strategic level more quickly than their opponents, bringing them to battle on the best terms. Historian and archaeologist Simon Elliott discusses the Classis Britannica, Rome's regional fleet that patrolled the shores around Britannia. Listen Now
How did Marius reform the Roman military?