To this was added the reducing the infantry of the line to a level, which is likewise to be referred to Marius.  The Roman method of aristocratic classification had hitherto prevailed also within the legion.  Each of the four divisions of the -velites-, the -hastati-, the -principes-, and the -triarii—–­or, as we may say, the vanguard, the first, second, and third line—­had hitherto possessed its special qualification for service, as respected property or age, and in great part also its distinctive equipment; each had its definite place once for all assigned in the order of battle; each had its definite military rank and its own standard.  All these distinctions were now superseded.  Any one admitted as a legionary at all needed no further qualification in order to serve in any division; the discretion of the officers alone decided as to his place.  All distinctions of armour were set aside, and consequently all recruits were uniformly trained.  Connected, doubtless, with this change were the various improvements which Marius introduced in the armament, the carrying of the baggage, and similar matters, and which furnish an honourable evidence of his insight into the practical details of the business of war and of his care for his soldiers; and more especially the new method of drill devised by Publius Rutilius Rufus (consul 649) the comrade of Marius in the African war.  It is a significant fact, that this method considerably increased the military culture of the individual soldier, and was essentially based upon the training of the future gladiators which was usual in the fighting-schools of the time.  The arrangement of the legion became totally different.  The thirty companies (-manipuli-) of heavy infantry, which—­ each in two sections (-centuriae-) composed respectively of 60 men in the first two, and of 30 men in the third, division—­had hitherto formed the tactical unit, were replaced by 10 cohorts (-cohortes-) each with its own standard and each of 6, or often only of 5, sections of 100 men apiece; so that, although at the same time 1200 men were saved by the suppression of the light infantry of the legion, yet the total numbers of the legion were raised from 4200 to from 5000 to 6000 men.  The custom of fighting in three divisions was retained, but, while previously each division had formed a distinct corps, it was in future left to the general to distribute the cohorts, of which he had the disposal, in the three lines as he thought best.  Military rank was determined solely by the numerical order of the soldiers and of the divisions.  The four standards of the several parts of the legion—­the wolf, the ox with a man’s head, the horse, the boar—­which had hitherto probably been carried before the cavalry and the three divisions of heavy infantry, disappeared; there came instead the ensigns of the new cohorts, and the new standard which Marius gave to the legion as a whole—­the silver eagle.  While within the legion every trace of