Marius also instituted pay for the soldiers, again over the protests and
howls of the oligarchs. The financial condition of the average soldier was
hardly brilliant, but by placing them on the payroll, Marius made them
"employees of the State." This act gave Marius and his successors, a
larger degree of latitude in what they could do with their armies.
Marius took steps to reduce the number of noncombatants that had accompanied
the armies of the past. No man was allowed to be accompanied by more than
one servant or slave. One mule was provided for four men, but each man was
required to carry his own sixty pound combat load, usually slung on a forked
carrying stick. The men took to calling themselves "Marius' mules."
The idle period between campaigns was replaced with physical labor.
Pickax and shovel replaced sword and spear. Legions would be assigned to
digging canals, widening or building roads or establishing fortifications. When
on the march the legions built a precisely designed fortified camp at the end of
each day's march then razed it before moving on. The result was that a
Roman general not only commanded the world's finest heavy infantry, but also its
best combat engineers.
And there was always drilling and training to fill any odd moments.
Exacting centurions would oversee the men, from the rawest recruit to the
seasoned veteran due for discharge, running them through their paces in
pilum throwing, swordplay and replying to orders for hours each
day. The men drilled in the tactical maneuvers they were expected to
perform on the battlefield to the point that warfare became, for the common
soldier, a bloody form of drill. If Waterloo was won on the playing fields
of Eton, Rome's victories were determined at the practice posts.
The regularization of procedure in tacticscarried over to providing good
arrangements for supply and the payment of troops. Roman logistics were by
far the best of the Classical World.