{"id":1214,"date":"2012-05-25T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T22:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2012-05-24T23:43:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-24T21:43:38","slug":"the-marian-legion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2012\/05\/the-marian-legion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marian Legion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t touched on anything about antiquity for a while so I thought I would put this up as I have been thinking about this for the last week or two. This is the Marian Legion or the Reforms of Marius, whichever you choose to call it.<\/p>\n

These reforms are important because they set the stage for the Legion of the period of the Civil War and early Imperium, especially the time of the Pax Romana. \u00a0 These reforms are probably not a direct result of the genius of Gaius Marius, he just gets credit for implementing them. \u00a0 That being said, he is the one who implemented them and turned the Roman Army into a professional force that essentially defeated all comers for the next 300-400 years. \u00a0 They are therefore worth discussing.<\/p>\n

The Marian Reforms can essentially be broken down into two types: 1. Administrative and 2. Operational. \u00a0 They are synergistic reforms in that administrative changes affected operations and in fact at some level were driven by them. The most important administrative changes were the elimination of the land requirement and substitution of a citizenship requirement for service and most importantly in my opinion, the state was now responsible for providing uniform equipment. \u00a0 The operational changes were the introduction of the Legionary Eagle, the redesigned pilum, and the elimination of the baggage train.<\/p>\n

First let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discuss administrative changes. \u00a0 The elimination of a land requirement and substitution of a citizenship requirement meant that the army could be substantially enlarged because there was a large number citizens who lived in the city of Rome but owned no land. \u00a0 This was a huge departure from former practice. \u00a0 This actually achieved two things; one, as previously stated it allowed for a huge expansion in the size of the army, secondly it gave the poor in Rome a stake in the success of the Republic. \u00a0 This last part was no small accomplishment The\u00c2\u00a0second\u00c2\u00a0administrative change was that the state took on the responsibility for providing the Legionnaire’s equipment. \u00c2\u00a0his also accomplished two things. \u00c2\u00a0The first thing this accomplished was that along with the citizenship requirement for service meant that the huge number of potential recruit could be equipped. \u00c2\u00a0Before this change the individual was\u00c2\u00a0responsible\u00c2\u00a0for providing\u00c2\u00a0their\u00c2\u00a0own equipment and this was not a minor expense. \u00c2\u00a0I heave read some estimates that a Legionnaires equipment could cost the equivalent of a year’s wages. \u00c2\u00a0This seems fairly reasonable to me if you consider that a modern American soldier’s equipment runs in the\u00c2\u00a0neighborhood\u00c2\u00a0of $40-50,000. \u00c2\u00a0Eliminating this burden allowed more soldiers to be recruited. \u00c2\u00a0The second and more important change was that it allowed for the standardization of equipment. \u00c2\u00a0This not only brought down costs it also meant that units were more uniform and thus their capabilities became more of a known factor.<\/p>\n

Operational changes were at least as important as the administrative changes the Legions underwent. \u00c2\u00a0The introduction of the Eagle, the pilum, and elimination of the\u00c2\u00a0legionary\u00c2\u00a0baggage train made huge changes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Examples of Legionary Eagles<\/p><\/div>\n

First, the introduction of the Legionary Eagle. \u00c2\u00a0The Eagle was the standard of the Legion and with its introduction the Legions became permananetn formations and not transitory\u00c2\u00a0ones that were raised and disbanded with every campaigning season as had previously been the practice. This gave individual legions a history and traditions. \u00c2\u00a0The Eagle was the\u00c2\u00a0personification\u00c2\u00a0of this history and tradition. \u00c2\u00a0It helped improve that\u00c2\u00a0tenuous\u00c2\u00a0concept known as Esprit d’Corps. \u00c2\u00a0It helped soldiers identify with their unit and made them want to fight hard to uphold the units traditions. \u00c2\u00a0It also served as a rallying point for the Legion in Battle. \u00c2\u00a0The loss of an eagle was considered one of the most shameful things that could happen to a unit. \u00c2\u00a0Great deeds of\u00c2\u00a0heroism\u00c2\u00a0were done to protect the Eagle. \u00c2\u00a0In many ways the Eagle became the unit, it was the manifestation that the unit itself had a life and would continue. \u00c2\u00a0The greatest disgrace that could occur was for a Legion to lose it’s Eagle, this was even worse than defeat. \u00c2\u00a0A unit could be defeated in honorable battle but it was the height of shame when a unit lost it’s Eagle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Roman Pilums<\/p><\/div>\n

The introduction of the Pilum was another of the Marian reforms. \u00c2\u00a0It is difficult for a modern reader to\u00c2\u00a0understand the significance of this change. \u00c2\u00a0The Pilum was a spear with some special design elements. \u00c2\u00a0Most importantly, it incorporated a semi-mobile shaft. \u00c2\u00a0It had an articulated head constructed such\u00c2\u00a0that\u00c2\u00a0when it impacted an enemy\u00c2\u00a0shield\u00c2\u00a0part\u00c2\u00a0sheared\u00c2\u00a0off precluding the\u00c2\u00a0enemy from\u00c2\u00a0throwing it\u00c2\u00a0back\u00c2\u00a0at the Romans. \u00c2\u00a0There were two pegs\u00c2\u00a0connecting\u00c2\u00a0the head of the spear to the shaft. \u00c2\u00a0One was\u00c2\u00a0iron\u00c2\u00a0while the other was wooden. \u00c2\u00a0When the Pilum impacted an enemy shield the\u00c2\u00a0wooden\u00c2\u00a0peg would break allowing the\u00c2\u00a0spear\u00c2\u00a0to pivot on the\u00c2\u00a0fulcrum\u00c2\u00a0of\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0iron peg. \u00c2\u00a0this meant the the shield was not only useless to be thrown back at the Romans but\u00c2\u00a0further\u00c2\u00a0it meant that the enemy shield itself became too heavy and unwieldy for use thus forcing them to discard their shield because of the added unbalanced\u00c2\u00a0weight\u00c2\u00a0added to it. The loss of their shield meant that enemy troops were that\u00c2\u00a0much\u00c2\u00a0less\u00c2\u00a0protected\u00c2\u00a0once the Legionnaire got into melee range. \u00c2\u00a0Additionally, the fact that the Pilum beacme the standard Legion stand-off weapon meant that drill in its use could be added to the standard training regimen of the legion. \u00c2\u00a0This not only simplified legion training it meant that if a legionnaire was transferred from one Legion to another he did not have to\u00c2\u00a0relearn\u00c2\u00a0how to employ \u00c2\u00a0a new weapon that was not used in the Legion\u00c2\u00a0from\u00c2\u00a0which he\u00c2\u00a0came.<\/p>\n

The last, and one of the most important changes was the elimination of the Legions baggage train. \u00c2\u00a0To really understand the significance of this change it is necessary to understand the effect of a baggage train on ancient armies. \u00c2\u00a0Typically, armies of the ancient world had a baggage train. \u00c2\u00a0This was not just baggage and equipment for the troops, often, even most of the time, the baggage train was full of what are known as camp\u00c2\u00a0followers. \u00c2\u00a0This was a large group of people from families of the soldiers to suttlers, merchants, widows and orphans, and prostitutes. \u00c2\u00a0This group could not move as fast as an army unencumbered because it included wagons as well. \u00c2\u00a0Ancient wagons were generally drawn by Oxen and not horses, and oxen are slow. \u00c2\u00a0The Roman elimination of the baggage train increased he strategic and operational speed of the Roman Legions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Legionary Backpack of the time of Marius<\/p><\/div>\n

To put it\u00c2\u00a0bluntly, with a baggage train an army could march on the\u00c2\u00a0order\u00c2\u00a0of 5-8 miles per day; without a baggage train they could make 20-25 miles per day or almost 4 times as fast. \u00c2\u00a0To accomplish this Marius made each\u00c2\u00a0Legionnaire\u00c2\u00a0carry a backpack with the essentials he would need while on the march. \u00c2\u00a0This backpack weighed up to 90 pounds and the\u00c2\u00a0legionary\u00c2\u00a0was expected to march 20 miles per day\u00c2\u00a0carrying\u00c2\u00a0it. \u00c2\u00a0This pack led to the nickname for the troops of Marius’ Mules.<\/p>\n

The\u00c2\u00a0Legionaries\u00c2\u00a0carried not just food but also equipment to fortify their camp at the end of each day’s march. \u00c2\u00a0The fact that they could make 20 miles per day meant that the Roman army had an operational mobility that few of their enemies could match. \u00c2\u00a0This let them surprise their enemies by getting to places much faster than any of them thought possible and surprise is one of the most decisive things in\u00c2\u00a0warfare.<\/p>\n

The various reforms of the Roman army\u00c2\u00a0implemented\u00c2\u00a0by Marius turned the Roman army from a formidable, seasonal force to a year round, professional force that proved to be virtually unbeatable by it’s enemies. \u00c2\u00a0These reforms wrought changes in the Roman ay f war comparable to those brought about by the introduction of the internal combustion engine in the early 20th cnetury. \u00c2\u00a0The reforms were standardized and modified very little until relatively late in the Imperial period. \u00c2\u00a0They let the\u00c2\u00a0Romans\u00c2\u00a0outfight and outmarch their opponents an just about every battlefield for almost 500 years. \u00c2\u00a0It is virtually impossible to understand Roman military success without understanding the definitive changes in military practice brought about by\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Marian Reforms of the Roman Army.<\/p>\n

Further Reading: Marian Reforms<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0 Clio Article<\/a>, From Republic to Empire: How Revolutionary were the Reforms of Gaius Marius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Battles and Book Reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven’t touched on anything about antiquity for a while so I thought I would put this up as I have been thinking about this for the last week or two. This is the Marian Legion or the Reforms of… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1222,460],"tags":[68,64,42,76,178],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical-antiquity","category-military-strategy","tag-ancient-rome","tag-antiquity","tag-military-art","tag-military-discipline","tag-roman-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}