Background
Gaius Marius was born in 157 BC in Arpino.
Gaius Marius was born in 157 BC in Arpino.
As military tribune, Gaius Marius may have served under Q. Caecilius Metellus Balearicus against the Balearic pirates.
In consequence, under the patronage of the Metelli, he won election to the plebeian tribunate for 119.
In 118 he ran for the curule and plebeian aedileship and lost both elections.
When Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was sent to Africa in 109 to deal with Jugurtha, he chose Marius as a member of his staff, perhaps to placate equestrian and Italian interests.
From the outset Marius intended to use the appointment for his political advancement.
Cooperating with equestrians in Africa and popular agitators in Rome, he openly criticized Metellus's conduct of the war.
Over Metellus's objections he returned to Rome to run for the consulship for 107.
Marius was the first "new man" in 35 years to win the office. After Marius's election the people voted to transfer the command in Africa to him.
When the Senate tried to embarrass him by authorizing the recruitment of additional troops for the unpopular war, Marius took the unprecedented step of enrolling men from the propertyless class, who in the past had been excluded from legionary service.
Within 2 years Marius beat Jugurtha from the field, but part of the glory of the victory was stolen by his quaestor, L. Cornelius Sulla, who negotiated the surrender of Jugurtha.
As a result, bitter enmity developed between Marius and Sulla.
Meanwhile, senatorial leaders had failed to meet a threat to northern Italy from migrating Cimbri and Teutons.
In reaction the people turned to Marius, whom they elected in absentia against all constitutional practice to the consulship for 104 and to four successive consulships from 103 to 100.
His reorganization continued in effect through the early empire.
Again Marius was victorious.
He slaughtered the Teutons and Ambrones at Aquae Sextiae in 102 and the Cimbri at Vercellae in 101 to save Italy. But Marius had won his six consulships not without a price.
In 103 the demagogue L. Appuleius Saturninus had attached himself to Marius's cause by passing legislation benefiting Marius's African veterans.
In 101 Marius used his veterans to secure the consulship for himself and a second tribunate for Saturninus.
As tribune in 100, Saturninus then rammed through an agrarian-colonial bill with the help of the veterans.
When Metellus Numidicus was recalled from exile in 98, Marius left for a tour of the East.
He returned in 97, but although he still commanded a large following among his veterans and the Italians, he found himself outmaneuvered in Rome by the senatorial leaders whom he had antagonized.
In the Social War, Marius came out of semiretirement to serve as legate to the consul P. Rutilius Lupus in 90.
To his disappointment the Senate awarded the Eastern command to Sulla, who was elected consul for 88.
But to get Marian support for his proposal to distribute the new Italian citizens in all the tribes, the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus introduced a bill to transfer the command to Marius and pushed his measures through with the help of Marius's veterans.
When Sulla marched on Rome to reclaim the command, he had Marius and Sulpicius declared public enemies.
Marius fled to Africa after barely escaping execution at Minturnae. In Africa, Marius watched for an opportunity to return to Rome.
When Octavius surrendered and Cinna was again recognized as consul, Marius grimly refused to enter the city until the sentence of exile had been formally repealed by the people.
For the murders and executions which followed his entry into the city, Marius was only partly responsible.
Cinna deliberately planned some, and others were committed by the victorious troops, who got out of hand, or by lesser men seeking private revenge.
Though a very able soldier, Gaius Marius was without the intellectual culture which the Gracchi, his political ancestors, possessed.
Gaius Marius married Julia.
