Quote Originally Posted by froglegs
By golly, and I always thought that the Marius reforms were historically tied to the size of the Roman Empire. I am sure that I can remember reading 40 years ago in some history book that as the Empire grew, it became impractical for the old and venerable citizen farmer, citizen soldier system to continue simply because you can't farm the fields if you are up in Transalpine Gaul, or in the far yonders of Hispania fighting for Senate and country -- doesn't that make sense?

Oh well, chalk it up to revisionist history I guess.
They were historically tied to Marius and the changes he instituted while pooling poorer classes into military service, not exactly revisionist history. If he isn't born yet...well, it is tough to envision having his reforms. Now the drivers for them were present even earlier than Marius. Some organic changes had been occurring for centuries. Remember Rome had fielded a hoplite army up until ~the 2nd Samnite War. When Rome adopted expansion outside of Italy during the 1st Punic war, longer service away from home became normal. Rome continued to adapt. but it was another 150 years before Marius instituted his reforms. Rome had been heavily engaged in Spain for at least 110 years before the reforms.