[32] After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.
[Footnote 30: The poorest rank of soldiers possessed above forty pounds sterling, (Dionys.Halicarn.iv.

17,) a very high qualification at a time when money was so scarce, that an ounce of silver was equivalent to seventy pounds weight of brass.

The populace, excluded by the ancient constitution, were indiscriminately admitted by Marius.

See Sallust.

de Bell.Jugurth.c.91.