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: Through a series of intrigues against his general, Marius got leave of absence to get elected consul. He then had the Tribal Assembly give him command of the war in place of his former general, Metellus. Marius and an ambitious junior officer named Sulla finished off Jugurtha and Marius got the credit. This set him up for the next big step in his career. For several years, the migrations of some Germanic tribes known as the Cimbri and Teutones had been wreaking havoc in the north. 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.