IX. Being declared consul by a great majority, he immediately set about levying soldiers in a way contrary to law and usage, by enrolling a great number of the poorer sort and of slaves, though former generals had never admitted men of this kind into the army, but had given arms, as they would anything else that was a badge of honour, only to those who had the due qualification, inasmuch as every soldier was thus considered to pledge his property to the State. It was not this however which made Marius most odious, but his insolent and arrogant expressions, which gave offence to the nobles, for he publicly said that he considered his acquisition of the consulship a trophy gained over the effeminacy of the noble and the rich, and that what he could proudly show to the people was his own wounds, not the monuments of the dead or the likenesses[68] of others. And he would often speak of the generals who had been defeated in Libya, mentioning by name Bestia[69] and Albinus, men of illustrious descent indeed, but unskilled in military matters, and for want of experience unsuccessful; and he would ask his hearers whether they did not think that the ancestors of Bestia and Albinus would rather have left descendants like himself, for they also had gained an honourable fame; not by noble birth, but by their virtues and their illustrious deeds. This was not said as a mere empty boast, nor simply because he wished to make himself odious to the nobles; but the people, who were delighted to hear the Senate abused, and always measured the greatness of a man's designs by the bigness of his words, encouraged him and urged him on not to spare the nobles if he wished to please the many.