Late Roman Republic, Gaius Marius (70; fl.133-86 BC), Introduction (Gaius Marius)

In 137 BC the tribune ⁰²Cassius Longinus Ravilla (cos.127 BC) passed the lex Cassia tabellaria, introducing secret ballots before the popular courts in all legal cases except those for treason. He was censor in 125 BC and extended the Tepula aqueduct to Rome. As inquisitor he formulated the famous maxim cui bono? (‘Good for whom?’, or ‘Who benefits?’). As prosecutor in 113 BC he condemned three Vestal Virgins accused of unchastity even though two of them as well as the men involved had been acquitted by the pontifex maximus, ⁰⁵Caecilius Metellus (cos.119 BC).

Marius served with ²⁸Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus at Numantia in 133 BC, was a quaestor in 123 BC and a tribune in 119 BC, in which position he passed a law (the lex Maria) to narrow the walkways that voters crossed to cast their votes, presumably to make it more difficult to intimidate them. The consuls made a show of opposing the law, but the other senators did not join in their objections.