Title: Impact of Gaius Marius’ Reforms
Headings: Impact of Gaius Marius’ Reforms
Impact of Gaius Marius’ Reforms
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Content: Marius had Rutilius Rufus tried for extortion as he incurred the hatred of the equestrian order. Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who many historians consider Marius’ arch enemy. The motives behind Plutarch’s partial sources enables one to see how the text and documentation of Marius’ life may be misrepresented. Furthermore, Plutarch portrays Marius as what a law enforcer should not be (White, 2011). This is further reinforced by Carney’s, Journal of Hellenic Studies on page 28 of his 1960 book, “Plutarch had a conventionalised picture of good conservatives and bad demagogues”. This quote means that Plutarch is restricted to the various statesmen that do not operate the same views and perceptions of the plebeian class (Matthew, 2010). Having Plutarch being the only major primary source is problematic as the use of the sources he used as well as deriving from nobility provide modern researchers with an abundance of questions that also paint Marius negatively. This potential bias of Plutarch on Marius affects the role Marius played in the eventual downfall of the Roman Republic (Bartram, 2018). Marius’s motivations behind the implementation of the reforms were forced upon as Rome had suffered four straight significant defeats to the Celtic and Germanic tribes. Marius faced a major issue as he needed more soldiers to combat the invading tribes.