ua, in the summer of 101, and Italy was saved.

The victories of Marius mark a new epoch in Roman history.[5] The
legions were no longer the levy of the citizens in arms, who were
themselves the state for which they fought. The legionaries were
citizens still. They had votes, and they used them; but they were
professional soldiers with the modes of thought which belong to
soldiers; and besides, the power of the hustings was now the power of
the sword. The constitution remained to appearance intact, and means
were devised sufficient to encounter, it might be supposed, the new
danger. Standing armies were prohibited in Italy. Victorious generals
returning from campaigns abroad were required to disband their legions
on entering the sacred soil. But the materials of these legions
remained a distinct order from the rest of the population, capable of
instant combination, and in combination, irresistible, save by
opposing combinations of the same kind.

[Footnote 5: He was ranked with Romulus and Camillus and
given the title of the third founder of Rome.]

The danger from the Germans was no sooner gone than political anarchy
broke loose again. Marius, the man of the people, was the saviour of
his country. He was made consul a fifth time, and a sixth. The party
which had given him his command shared, of course, in his
pre-eminence. The elections could be no longer interfered with or the
voters intimidated. The public offices were filled with the most
violent agitators, who believed that the time had come to revenge the
Gracchi, and carry out the democratic revolution, to establish the
ideal Republic, and the direct rule of the citizen assembly. This,
too, was a chimera. If the Roman Senate could not govern, far less
could the Roman mob govern. Marius stood aside, and let the voices
rage. He could not be expected to support a system which had brought
the country so near to ruin. He had no belief in the visions of the
demagogues, but the time was not ripe to make an end of it all. Had he
tried, the army would not have gone with him; so he sat still, till
faction had done its work. The popular heroes of the hour were the
tribune Saturninus and the praetor Glaucia. They carried corn laws and
land laws--whatever laws they pleased to propose. The administration
remaining with the Senate, they carried a vote that every senator
should take an oath to execute their laws under penalty of fine and
expulsion. Marius di