Gaius Marius saved Rome from the Cimbri and Teutones, won an unprecedented seven consulships, and opened military service to the landless poor. That last reform created armies loyal to their commanders rather than the state, setting the stage for every civil war that followed.

This episode traces how a self-made soldier from Arpinum rose to dominate Roman politics and accidentally created the conditions that destroyed the Republic.

• The Marian military reforms and why they changed Rome forever
• His rivalry with Sulla and the first march on Rome
• How opening the army to the poor created private armies
• His bloody seventh consulship and death at the height of civil war