Marian reforms query

[Erpingham]

Asking this one because it has come up on Wikpedia. What recent works are we aware of that challenge the notion of Marius as author of these reforms and is there an alternative interpretation?  This being wikipedia, I'm in search of reliable published sources that can potentially be used in a revision of the Marian reforms wikipage.

[Ian61]

Extending the pool of available soldiers was perhaps an inevitable solution to the problem of fielding armies in the numbers Rome did. Similarly the carrying supplies (from Plutarch 13 cited as one possible source of the phrase 'Marian mules' ) - I know Goldsworthy suggests they may already have been doing this (in his In the Name of Rome) but it is probable Marius insisted on more mandatory form.  The extensions of citizenship and reorganization of the legions structure seems to have happened under his leadership - and he did have much longer in power than many others in that period. Is it perhaps a case of ministerial responsibility, just as the boss takes the flack for failings they also quite happily take the plaudits for success even if, in fact, the ideas were conceived and implemented by underlings. Later and for convenience all this is grouped under a convenient heading 'Marian Reforms'.  Plutarch certainly doesn't portray him as a towering genius, in fact suggests that he was seen as nothing special, in his younger years.
Oops! Sorry that didn't answer your question at all.  

[Adrian Nayler]

One modern scholar with an interest in the so-called Marian Reforms is Francois Gauthier. He summarises his corpus of work here:

https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/francois-gauthier/

His PhD thesis, Gauthier, F. (2015) Financing War in the Roman Republic 201 BCE-14 CE, is available here:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/2f75rb627&ved=2ahUKEwiH1siGmun_AhUYiv0HHdzkBkwQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2ik9LgQXWPEA3bnfG_QLSs

His contribution "The transformation of the Roman army in the  last decades of the Republic" to Armstrong, J. and M.P. Fronda (eds.) (2019) Romans at War: Soldiers, Citizens, and Society in the Roman Republic. Routledge: London is available here (apparently the whole book):

https://www.academia.edu/40691209/Romans_at_War_Soldiers_Citizens_and_Society_in_the_Roman_Republic

I would recommend this book as it contains many interesting papers on the Roman army that promulgate newer perspectives to those that permeate many wargames-oriented publications.

Some of this may assist Anthony's search. Hopefully GoogleFu will assist further.

[Adrian Nayler]

It is easy for English-speakers to overlook, as I did in my previous message above, the significant contribution of the French scholar Francois Cadiou to the modern reappraisal of the 'Marian Reforms'.

His book "L'armée imaginaire: les soldats prolétaires dans les légions romaines au dernier siècle de la République," published in 2018, seems to fundamentally challenge the previously accepted view. I have not read this as I lack the necessary skill in French but a review by BMCR can be found at:

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2021/2021.06.02/

[Jim Webster]

I've read somewhere that authors liked to have one person to point to as the great reformer. Marius and Iphicrates were given as examples. Both may well have made some changes, but other changes were credited to them in the interests of 'tidiness'   

[Erpingham]

Thanks all.  I've passed on Adrian's suggestions - it's now down to finding someone to do the work (and it won't be me )

Incidentally,

FRANÇOIS GAUTHIER, The Changing Composition of the Roman Army in the Late Republic and the So-Called "Marian-Reforms

looks useful.  Not free but downloadable for $1 from Ancient History Bulletin