he compared his march from Africa to Gaul to the victorious processions of Dionysus from continent to continent, and had a cup—­none of the smallest—­manufactured for his use after the model of that of Bacchus.  There was just as much of hope as of gratitude in this delirious enthusiasm of the people, which might well have led astray a man of colder blood and more mature political experience.  The work of Marius seemed to his admirers by no means finished.  The wretched government oppressed the land more heavily than did the barbarians:  on him, the first man of Rome, the favourite of the people, the head of the opposition, devolved the task of once more delivering Rome.  It is true that to one who was a rustic and a soldier the political proceedings of the capital were strange and incongruous:  he spoke as ill as he commanded well, and displayed a far firmer bearing in presence of the lances and swords of the enemy than in presence of the applause or hisses of the multitude; but his inclinations were of little moment.  The hopes of which he was the object constrained him.  His military and political position was such that, if he would not break with the glorious past, if he would not deceive the expectations of his party and in fact of the nation, if he would not be unfaithful to his own sense of duty, he must check the maladministration of public affairs and put an end to the government of the restoration; and if he only possessed the internal qualities of a head of the people, he might certainly dispense with those which he lacked as a popular leader.

The New Military Organization

He held in his hand a formidable weapon in the newly organized army.  Previously to his time the fundamental principle of the Servian constitution—­by which the levy was limited entirely to the burgesses possessed of property, and the distinctions as to armour were regulated solely by the property qualification(2)—­had necessarily been in various respects relaxed.  The minimum census of 11,000 -asses- (43 pounds), which bound its possessor to enter the burgess-army, had been lowered to 4000 (17 pounds;(3)).  The older six property-classes, distinguished by their respective kinds of armour, had been restricted to three; for, while in accordance with the Servian organization they selected the cavalry from the wealthiest, and the light-armed from the poorest, of those liable to serve, they arranged the middle class, the proper infantry of the line, no longer according to property but according to age of service, in the three divisions of -hastati-, -principes-, and -triarii-.  They had, moreover, long ago brought in the Italian allies to share to a very great extent in war-service; but in their case too, just as among the Roman burgesses, military duty was chiefly imposed on the propertied classes.  Nevertheless the Roman military system down to the time of Marius rested in the main on that primitive organization of the burgess-militia.