Marius Synthesis Essay

Marius also turned his reforms to the individual legionary, as he was then called. He improved the mobility and self-confidence of his soldiers by forcing them to complete long route marches, carrying all their equipment. From this point on, the legionary would carry their entire standard package including weapons, armor, food, tents, supplies and tools. Marius compelled his men to carry as much of their own gear as they possibly could . The men were pushed to carry more and do more for themselves as Marius reduced the number of pack animals, as well as encouraging men to cook for themselves. He did concede to giving each man a forked stick to carry more of their gear on, a sort of ancient equivalent to the rucksack. The soldiers nicknamed themselves Marius' Mules due to the …show more content…
To replace the maniple as a formation, the cohort was adopted. Each soldier was equipped the same and assigned to one of six identical centuries of 80 men, making up the cohort unit. There were then 10 cohors of 480 men making up a legion, which standardized the entire system. The legion was made into a single large cohesive unit with interchangeable parts, capable of tactical flexibility not available with the complex structure of the Republican manipular system. The long single lines used prior to Marius were also eliminated in favor of a tiered 3 cohort deep battle line. This allowed rapid and easy support or rotating of fresh troops into combat. A typical legion of this period had around 5,000-6,000 legionaries as well as a large number of camp followers, servants and slaves. Legions could contain as many as 6,000 fighting men divided among several cohorts. Numbers would also vary depending on casualties suffered during a campaign; Julius Caesar's legions during his campaign in Gaul often only had around 3,500 men and on one occasion during his civil war against Pompey the Great he had to join two of his battle-reduced legions together to achieve the strength of one conventional