1Having made a speech of this kind, Marius, when he sees that the people's spirits are roused, quickly loads ships with supplies, pay, arms and other useful things, and orders his legate Aulus Manlius to set out with them. 2He himself meanwhile enrolled soldiers, not in the manner of their ancestors nor from the classes, but as each man wished, most of them from the proletariat. 3Some said this was done for want of better men, others through the consul's courting of popularity, because it was by that class that he had been celebrated and raised up, and because to a man seeking power the neediest are the most useful, since they hold nothing of their own dear, having nothing, and anything that brings a price seems honourable to them.
4So Marius set out for Africa with a somewhat greater number than had been decreed, and in a few days is carried to Utica. 5The army is handed over to him by the legate Publius Rutilius; 5for Metellus had avoided the sight of Marius, so as not to see what his mind had been unable to bear even to hear of.