Aquilius, having completely subdued Salvius and his insurgents, receives a triumph in Rome in 100 BCE.

Gaius Marius, having gained his sixth term as consul, has meanwhile revised the organization, training, and equipment of Roman armies by the introduction of a volunteer, semiprofessional army, its ranks open to the proletarians or common people.

With the German invaders annihilated (a third horde of barbarians has turned away without troubling Rome), the proletarian soldiers who have accomplished the task clamor for more land, but Rome’s ruling oligarchy refuses to recognize their demands.

Consequently, coalitions begin to form between destitute veterans and ambitious generals.

The popularist tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and the praetor Glaucia propose and pass liberal land laws assigning land in the province of Africa to Marius’s veterans.

However, the radical nature of these bills and the forcible methods Saturninus and Glaucia have used in ensuring their passage alienate a large part of the Roman people.

Metellus Numidicus, now well established as a conservative leader in the Senate, refuses to accept Saturninus' agrarian law, and is consequently exiled from Rome.