's death became
king, surprised his camp, and nearly captured Messana. [Sidenote: M'.
Aquilius ends the war.] But, in 101, M'. Aquilius was sent out, and
defeated Athenion and slew him with his own hand. A batch of 1,000
still remained under arms, but surrendered to Aquilius. He sent them
to Rome to fight with wild beasts in the arena. They preferred to die
by each other's swords there. Satyrus and one other were left last,
and Satyrus after killing his comrade slew himself. The misery caused
in Sicily by this long war, which ended in 100 B.C., may be estimated
by the fact that, whereas Sicily usually supplied Rome with corn, it
was now desolated by famine, and its towns had to be supplied with
grain from Rome.

After this narration of the military events of the period to the
beginning of the second century B.C., it is natural to consider the
changes which Marius had effected in the army--the instrument of his
late conquests. [Sidenote: Changes in the Roman army.] We cannot tell
how many of the innovations now introduced were initiated by him, but
they were introduced about this date. Before his time the Hastati,
Principes, and Triarii, ranked according to length of service,
had superseded the Servian classes. From his time this second
classification also ceased. [Sidenote: Arms of the legionary.] Every
legionary was armed alike with the heavy pilum--an iron-headed javelin
6 feet 9 inches long, the light pilum, a sword, and a coat of armour.
Besides these he had to carry food and other burdens, which would vary
according to the length and object of the march, such as stakes for
encampment, tools, &c. [Sidenote: The 'Marian mules.'] Marius invented
what were called 'Mariani muli' to ease the soldier--forked sticks,
with a board at the end to bear the bundle, carried over the
shoulders. Before his time the army had ceased to be recruited solely
from Roman citizens. Not only had Italians been drafted into it,
but foreign mercenaries were employed, such as Thracians, Africans,
Ligurians, and Balearians. [Sidenote: The light troops auxiliaries.]
After his time the Velites are not mentioned, and all the light-armed
troop were auxiliaries. [Sidenote: The cohort the tactical unit.]
Before his time the maniple had been the tactical unit. Now it was the
cohort. [Sidenote: Composition of the legion.] A legion consisted of
ten cohorts, each cohort containing three maniples, and each maniple
two centuries. The legion's standard was