Title: FC31: The Fall of the Roman Republic (133-31 BCE) - The Flow of History
Headings: FC31:
The Fall of the Roman Republic (133-31 BCE)

FC31: The Fall of the Roman Republic (133-31 BCE)
Pattern of decline
First attempts at reform: the Gracchi
Marius and the Roman army
Sulla and the First Civil War
The rise of Julius Caesar
Octavian, Antony, and two more civil wars (44-31 B.C.E.)

Content: When they turned on Rome in earnest and mauled a Roman army in Gaul in 105 B.C.E., panic set in and Rome looked for a savior. That man, of course, was Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha. He was elected to an unheard of six straight consulships in order to prepare the army for the northern menace. Marius' main legacy was a long overdue reform of the army. Rome's extended campaigns required a long-term professional army to replace the reluctant and inefficient peasant draftees Rome had used till now. Marius took the final steps of making it just that, with volunteers serving instead of peasants hauled off their farms. Marius' recruits came largely from the unemployed mob lured by the promise of land after their service was over. This had three main effects. For one thing, since these recruits were too poor to supply their own equipment, the state had to supply it, thus making equipment and training more regular and the army more efficient. Along these lines, professional soldiers could devote all their time to training which, combined with the proverbially tough Roman discipline, also made for a very effective army.