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Scipio Younger) had to deal with recruitment problems. Marius, like other Roman commanders of that period (e.g.
#Rome total war marius reforms professional#
In history, the belief that Gaius Marius transformed the Roman army from universal to professional was established. This was a sufficient number to defend the state and conduct military operations, especially considering the fact that Rome did not have even 300,000 adult men during the Second Punic War (of which about 60% of the people were mobilized). This is evidenced by the census carried out at the turn of 136-135 BCE – 317 993 men capable of fighting in the Roman army. Central and northern Italy were still dominated by small landowners (so-called assidui). It was here that powerful latifundia developed, on which slave groups worked. After defeating Carthage in the Second Punic War, the Italian peoples who supported the Hannibal (mainly the south of the Apennine Peninsula) were punished by Rome by taking away some of the lands that were nationalized and then transferred on lease. The crisis was certainly not so serious, as evidenced by archaeological research. Modern historians almost agree that the Gracchus have exaggerated the problem or practiced demagogy to a large extent. However, both of them were murdered on the initiative of Optimates. In the 130 and 120 BCE, the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus tried to oppose such developments.
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In this way, small landowners were not able to compete and were impoverished (often their farms were taken over) as a result, potential recruitment resources have shrunk. As a result of the policy of conquests, which caused an influx of slaves, rich landowners created powerful latifundia, offering low grain prices. The source of the Roman military crisis was to be the socio-economic changes of the turn of the second and first centuries BCE. In history, there has been a perception that after the Second Punic War, demographic emerged in Italy that led to the crisis in the Roman army. He went down in history as a great reformer, who marked the history of the Roman republic by improving the Roman army.