Long-lasting Effects of Removal of Land Requirement:
The more obvious effects of removal of the land requirement have already been stated, such as the creation of the cohort. The long-lasting effects of the army reform is a shifting of loyalty from the state to the commanders of the armies. Eventually this shift can be seen as a necessary element to the disintegration of the Republic.
Conscripted soldiers were soon replaced by professional soldiers, who served on average for about 16 years. The sacramentum was an oath of loyalty taken by all recruits enlisted in the army. After a soldier's service was over the state had no responsibility to take care of him; whereas, the generals of the armies took on the responsibility of finding soldiers land and means of survival. In each of these aspects of the new army, loyalty and dedication to the general precedes loyalty to the state. Those soldiers who had once been the urban poor had no future except the army, and so they looked to their generals to make the state give them what they needed.
In 103 BCE, the tribune Saturninus provided land grants for veterans. Later in 100 BCE land grants in Gaul were again given to veterans. These land grants, oftentimes legislated by a commander for his army, allowed legions of men to settle down in the same area. This created colonies of militarily trained peoples loyal to one commander; armies ready to be mobilized whenever the general had need of one.
The new army of plebeians, or "client" armies, could also be bought off with money and land by politicians or commanders to be used as voters in the concilium plebis or as brawlers to riot and kill. An example of such use of power is obvious in Sulla's march on Rome and hostile takeover of the city. Similar exercises in power soon destroy the collegiality necessary for the aristocracy to rule the state; resulting in the subversion of the Republic and the birth of the Empire.
Doing Away with the Land Requirement.
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