| Summary: | During the second century BC the Roman army experienced a deep internal crisis, which has been seen as a natural consequence of the newly established republican expansionism. The launching of military campaigns in ever more distant theatres and for longer periods of time had negative effects on the basis of recruitment, exponentially reducing the availability of human resources that met the basic requirements for participation in the levies. These shortcomings were successfully addressed by the military man and politician Gaius Marius, who in 107 BC devised a programme of reforms, the implementation of which would lead to a break with the models inherited from previous periods, abandoning the traditional citizen militia and giving way to professionally trained contingents.
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