Editing Gaius Marius (section)

=== Supposed reforms to the legions ===
In the narratives of Plutarch and Sallust, Marius's reforms to the recruitment process for the Roman legions are roundly criticised for creating a soldiery wholly loyal to their generals and beholden to their beneficence or ability to secure payment from the state.{{Sfn|Evans|1995|p=91}} However, Evans argues this development did not emerge from Marius, and it was likely initially envisioned as nothing more than a temporary measure to meet the extraordinary threats of Numidia and the Cimbrian tribes.{{Sfn|Evans|1995|p=211}} Moreover, the armies in the late republic were broadly similar to those of the middle republic.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=xvii}}{{sfn|Brunt|1962}}

The willingness of the soldiers to kill fellow Romans changed after the Social War: "if Sulla's army had been unwilling to march on Rome... then the outcome would obviously have been completely different, no matter how power-hungry Marius or Sulla were".{{sfn|Flower|2010|pp=158–9}} The Social War had the related effect of breaking down the Roman government's legitimacy.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=373}} Lintott, in the ''Cambridge Ancient History'', similarly writes that "Roman armies were only to be used for civil war after their scruples had been drowned in a blood-bath of fighting with their own Italian allies... it may as well be argued that civil war created the self-seeking unprincipled soldier".{{sfn|Lintott|1994|p=92}}

There were political effects, however, to the promise of land after service: the decision to call up the {{Lang|la|proletarii}} would not be fully felt until the time to draw down the troops. As the spoils of war became increasingly inadequate as compensation for the soldiers – the spoils of war do not guarantee a long term stream of income – it became common practice to allocate land (generally abroad) for the foundation of veterans' colonies.{{Sfn|Evans|1995|p=212}} Political unrest over veterans' land bonuses in the first century BC, however, is exaggerated:{{by whom|date=August 2023}} soldiers both in the Marian and post-Marian periods largely went home peacefully when land demands were not immediately met. Moreover, through the post-Marian period, land distributions were sporadic and volunteers were taken on with no promises or reasonable expectations of land at discharge.{{sfnm|Gauthier|2015|1p=101|Keaveney|2007|2p=62}} It was only by the second half of the last century&nbsp;BC that veteran demands for land had become an expectation, later fulfilled by the [[Second Triumvirate]].{{sfn|Keaveney|2007|pp=63–64}}