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C. Sallusti Crispi De Coniuratione Catilinae Liber; De Bello Iugurthino Liber
C Sallusti Crispi De Coniuratione Catilinae Liber De Bello Iugurthino Liber Author:Sallust General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1889 Original Publisher: Clarendon Press Subjects: Rome Jugurthine War, 111-105 B.C Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free ... more »trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: III. CHANGES IN THE MILITARY SYSTEM INTRODUCED IN THE AGE OF MARIOS. In the age of Marius changes were introduced which tended almost to revolutionize the military system of the Romans. Of these some were directly due to the insight or policy of Marius himself, while others may be illustrated from what we know of his career. It may be convenient therefore to have a summary statement of them put together here. i. It had for ages rested with the senate as a matter of unquestioned right to prepare for each campaign by regulating the extent and source of the new levies while determining the total numbers that were to be brought into the field. But Marius in his first consulship, we read (Jug. 84), acting on his own discretion, largely exceeded the limits which the senate had determined, and set thereby a precedent which the great commanders of the future were not slow to follow. 2. A far more sweeping change gave a new character to the rank and file. Drawn by conscription hitherto from all classes save the lowest, they had carried with them to the camp the sentiments of the land owner or the farmer; the poorest were now to be admitted to the ranks ; volunteers took the place of conscripts ; they were bound to twenty years of service : even after that they were often kept under the standards (vexil- larii), though free from the hard routine of work and drill. The soldier's life therefore was a professional career, and all his interests, prospects, and ambition centred in the camp, where he soon learned to think more of the sy...« less