 With the formal military reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC, implemented to combat a shortage of manpower due to wars against Jugurtha in Africa and Germanic tribes to the north, the different classes of units were scrapped entirely. The wealth and age requirements were removed; anyone could join as a career, rather than as service to the city, and all would be equipped as milites, with the same, state-purchased equipment. Auxiliaries, local irregular troops, would fulfill other roles, serving as archers, skirmishers and cavalry. Sallust, in his Jugurthine War, describes several instances in which Roman or allied regular heavy infantry were equipped with light equipment and used as light footsoldiers. This was supposedly a common practice.
