Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius
Reverse of a denarius of 101 BC, depicting Marius as triumphator in a chariot, his son before him
Born	c. 157 BC Cereatae, Italy
Died	13 January 86 BC (aged 70–71) Rome
Office	Tribune of the plebs 119 BC Praetor 115 BC Proconsul, Hispania Ulterior 114 BC Legate, Numidia 109–08 BC Consul 107, 104–100 BC Proconsul, Italy 88–87 BC Consul 86 BC
Spouse	Julia (aunt of Julius Caesar)
Children	Gaius Marius the Younger
Military service
Awards	2 Roman triumphs
Wars	Numantine War Jugurthine War Cimbrian War Social War Bellum Octavianum

Gaius Marius (Latin: [ˈɡaːiʊs ˈmariʊs]; c. 157 BC – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times. Rising from a family of smallholders in a village called Ceraetae in the district of Arpinum, Marius acquired his initial military experience serving with Scipio Aemilianus at the Siege of Numantia in 134 BC. He won election as tribune of the plebs in 119 BC and passed a law limiting aristocratic interference in elections. Barely elected praetor in 115 BC, he next became the governor of Further Spain where he campaigned against bandits. On his return from Spain he married Julia, the aunt of Julius Caesar.

Marius attained his first consulship in 107 BC and became the commander of Roman forces in Numidia, where he brought an end to the Jugurthine War. By 105 BC Rome faced an invasion by the Cimbri and Teutones, and the comitia centuriata elected Marius consul for a second time to face this new threat. Marius was consul every year from 104 to 100 BC, and he defeated the Teutones at Aquae Sextiae and the Cimbri at Vercellae. However, Marius suffered political setbacks during his sixth consulship in 100 BC and afterwards entered a period of semi-retirement from public life.

The Republic fell into crisis with the outbreak of the Social War in 91 BC, in which Marius fought with limited success. He then became embroiled in a conflict with the Roman general Sulla which resulted in his exile to Africa in 88 BC. Marius returned to Italy from Carthage during the War of Octavius, seized Rome, and began a bloody reign of terror in the city which culminated in him being elected consul a seventh time and then dying at the beginning of his consulship, in 86 BC.

In the 19th century,^[1] Marius was credited with the so-called Marian reforms, including the shift from militia levies to a professional soldiery; improvements to the pilum (a kind of javelin); and changes to the logistical structure of the Roman army. Twenty-first-century historians generally view the notion as "a construct of modern scholarship."^[2]