Gaius Marius

Marius came from smallholders in Arpinum, cut his teeth at the Siege of Numantia in 134 BC, and climbed through tribune and praetor on narrow margins. His first consulship in 107 BC sent him to end the Jugurthine War in Numidia; when the Cimbri and Teutones invaded, Rome elected him consul five years running, from 104 to 100 BC, and he crushed both tribes at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae. Political failures during his sixth consulship drove him out of public life until the Social War pulled him back with mixed results. A feud with Sulla exiled him to Africa in 88 BC, but he returned during the W…