Analysis of the changes of the military system in the late Roman Republic and the reasons behind them

Abstract

The military is essential for Rome to develop from a small city-state in central Italy into a vast empire spanning three continents in history. However, due to the defeat of the war, social contradictions, the shortage of troops, and the expansion of the Empire’s territory, the old military system that the Romans were proud of was questioned. The Romans urgently needed military reform to meet the growing country. Compared with the old civil military service system, the reformed conscription system has more sources of soldiers, more powerful fighting capacity, longer service time, more Roman troops, and more systematic militarization management. The military reform of Marius was a change that Rome had to make. At that time, the Roman Republic was unstable, and the severe land annexation in Rome led to middle- and lower-class civilians having to rely on the nobles to survive. As more and more civilians attached to nobles, fewer and fewer wealthy civilians could meet the conditions for joining the army. At the same time, the territory of the Roman Republic is not limited to the Italian peninsula. Once invincible on the Italian peninsula, the military system and tactics are no longer advanced enough. Roma needs to change their tactics and system to defeat those strong opponents.