The Bloomsbury Ancients in Action series is a laudable endeavour, aimed primarily at undergraduate and senior-level secondary students, to provide accessible and critical introductions to key figures from the ancient world. S.’s Marius admirably fulfils this brief and, indeed, in his reflections on Marius, the army and the Roman revolution, goes beyond it, posing arguments with which scholars of the Late Republic will wish to engage. The book is divided into four short chapters and an introduction, which aims to provide background and context for investigating ‘why Marius matters’. The book is accompanied by a chronology of Marius’ life, guidelines for further reading (based, appropriately for the intended readership, on largely Anglophone scholarship) and a list of references to ancient sources. The chapters themselves are not referenced, but the bibliographical guidance provided is detailed and helpful, and the references to ancient sources are organised in accordance with key chronological (e.g. ‘Arpinum receives the Roman citizenship in 188’) or factual material (e.g. ‘copies of the elogium of Marius’) which can be found in the ancient texts. I must confess a certain ambivalence about the Press’ decision to separate narrative and argument from referencing in this way, but S.’s Marius manages these conventions well, and a student willing to read through the accompanying reference materials will be well served.

The book is written with students in mind throughout. It offers up-to-date syntheses of the current state of play on key issues such as Roman manpower, Roman politics and the role of the people and embeds this in a lively, authoritative narrative.

An introductory chapter seeks to place Marius in the context of ‘wide-ranging processes’ and ‘long-term developments’ (p. 1) in the history of the late Roman Republic and hence to resist ‘great-man history’. S. offers an overview of Marius’ career and provides a thoughtful reappraisal of, for example, the scholarly history of the idea that Marius revolutionised the Roman army (pp. 2–4), and the ancient tradition on the fall of the Republic. Chapter 2 on Marius’ rise is the centre-piece of the work as a whole, a long chapter that deals with Marius’ early career and the campaigns against Jugurtha and in Germany. S.’s discussion of how one might make reasonable conjectures about Marius’ early political career (including the literary tradition about his lowly origins) is exemplary as is his treatment of the archaeological and demographic evidence, which has led to a revised assessment of the Gracchan revolution (pp. 32–5). The interplay of religious and political narratives (concentrating on the prophetess Martha, pp. 48–9) is well handled. Chapters 3, ‘Marius’ Fall’, and 4, ‘Twists of Fate’, provide a narrative for the years between 100 bc and Marius’ death. Throughout, the treatment of the ancient narratives – Appian, Plutarch and Valerius Maximus – is deft, and students will appreciate the careful delineation of a hostile tradition and material potentially from Sulla's autobiography. A final chapter, ‘Marius’ Legacy’, surveys the afterlife of Marius’ reputation and achievements in the immediate aftermath of his death down to his treatment by Lucan during the Principate.

The book is well produced, and I found no typographical errors. On the elogium of Marius, M. Beard, ‘Vita Inscripta’, in W.W. Ehlers (ed.), La Biographie Antique (1998), pp. 83–118 and A. Gowing, Empire and Memory (2005) might also have been added.