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Marian reforms
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==== Unit composition ==== Modern historians have sometimes credited to Marius the abolition of Roman cavalry and light infantry and their replacement with [[auxilia]]. There is no direct evidence for this contention, which is driven largely by literary sources' silence on those branches after the 2nd century; continued inscriptional evidence attests both citizen cavalry and light infantry into the end of the republic.<ref>{{harvnb|Gauthier|2020|p=284}}, citing, among others, {{CIL|1|593}}. See also, especially pages 69–71, {{Cite journal |last=Gauthier |first=François |date=2021 |title=Did ''velites'' really disappear in the late Roman republic? |url=https://biblioscout.net/article/10.25162/historia-2021-0004 |journal=Historia |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=69–82 |doi=10.25162/historia-2021-0004 |s2cid=230543924 |issn=0018-2311|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The decline of Roman light infantry has been connected not to reform but cost. Because the logistical cost of supporting light infantry and heavy infantry was relatively similar, the Romans chose to deploy heavy infantry in extended and distant campaigns due to their greater combat effectiveness, especially when local levies could substitute for light infantry brought from Rome and Italy.{{sfn|Taylor|2019|p=86}} Marius has also been credited with the introduction of the [[cohort (military unit)|cohort]] (a unit of 480 men) in place of the [[Maniple (military unit)|maniple]] (a unit of only 160 men) as the basic unit of manoeuvre.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=Alan |date=2003 |title=Space and manpower in Roman camps |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0092.00189 |journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=303–313 |doi=10.1111/1468-0092.00189 |issn=0262-5253|url-access=subscription }} Contra {{harvnb|Scullard|2011|p=48|ps=, explaining also that three maniples made up a cohort, which was itself 600 men.}}</ref> This attribution is rather dubious and there is no ancient evidence of it;<ref>{{harvnb|Matthew|2010|p=50 n. 3|ps=. "{{lang|la|cohors}}: no ancient text specifically attributes this reform to Marius".}}</ref> cohorts may have been used as far back as the Second Punic War near the end of the third century BC. The cohort itself emerged as an administrative unit conscripted from Rome's Italian allies and is first attested in a description by Polybius, a usually reliable historian,{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|pp=20–21}} of a battle which occurred in 206 BC.{{sfn|Taylor|2019|p=81}} By the 130s BC, through the [[Roman conquest of Spain|Spanish wars]] and operations with Italian allies, the cohort had developed into a tactical unit.{{sfn|Taylor|2019|pp=76, 82}} While, after 109 BC, the maniple disappears from the literary evidence, Marius' predecessor in Numidia is documented to have used cohorts in battle:<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2019|p=89|ps=, citing {{harvnb|Sall. ''Iug.''|loc=51.3}}, where amid an uncertain battle "Metellus... opposed four legionary cohorts to the enemy's infantry", pushed through, and won the [[Battle of the Muthul|battle]].}}</ref> if cohorts replaced maniples around this time, Marius was likely not responsible.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2019|p=82|ps=, citing {{Cite journal |last=Bell |first=Michael J V |date=1965 |title=Tactical reform in the Roman republican army |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=404–422 |jstor=4434897 |issn=0018-2311}} }}</ref>
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