What is a “Marian partisan”?
Gaius Marius. He was first a general. He reformed the Roman Army and turned them from a militia into a real tough razor sharp professional army at a time when Rome was under dire threat from Germanic tribes. His troops were so physically fit and so accustomed to marching long distances at speed with all their weapons and equipment that they came to be called “Marius’ Mules”. They repeatedly used speed and surprise to defeat Rome’s enemies.
Marius was also a political leader being elected consul an unprecedented 7 times. Marius was on the Populares’ (the poor/working class) side against the Optimates (the rich/the Establishment). After some low level conflict and while the top general on the other side (Lucious Cornelius Sulla) was away on campaign, Marius seized Rome and executed a bunch of his political enemies.
But he was old and died. Sulla came back from his military campaign abroad, took Rome and executed even more of his political enemies.
Caesar was Marius’ nephew by marriage and sympathized with Marius......
Marius was the first of the military strongmen who came to dominate Rome, and who fought the civil wars that led to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. What led to military strongmen doing so was the inability of the Roman Republic to reform.....because the elites murdered Reformers like Tiberius Gracchus and later his brother Gaius Gracchus who followed in his footsteps.