Originally posted by BroncoBeavis
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Okay, so, social activism...we can start with Gaius Marius, although he of course was not the first. Marius was born with a Knight (equester) status. His family was successful and rich, but he was not of the patrician class. He was blocked at every turn from advancement because of his status, patricians being able to supposedly trace their heredity back (and here's the mythology part) to Aeneas through Romulus. It wasn't until he had proven himself on the battlefield that he became a New Man (novus homo), or the first in his House to serve in the Senate. After a long and treacherous path, he eventually rose to be consul...and then an unheard of six more times.
So what sorts of social activism was he responsible for, you ask? Well, until then only the nobility and land owners could serve in the military. He allowed all Roman citizens to enlist. He granted retirement benefits to all soldiers. He granted full citizenship to all Italians serving in the Roman military. Italians who, at the time, were looked down upon by Romans (which is why I find it hilarious that txtebow equates being Italian with Roman, but I digress). The whole time, he fought tooth and nail vs. the nobility, who referred to him as an "Italian hayseed with no Greek in him". There's that pesky mythology again.
I can go on. I could talk about the brothers Gracchi and I could talk about Christians like you were trying to get me to (

Anything else?
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