Page "Marian reforms" Paragraph 20

Every legion had a baggage train of 500 – 550 mules, or about 1 mule for every 10 legionaries.

To keep these baggage trains from becoming too large, Marius had each man carry as much of his own equipment as he could, including his own armor, weapons and 15 days ' rations or about 50 – 60 pounds of load total.

To make this easier, he issued each legionary a forked stick to carry his load on his shoulders.

The soldiers were nicknamed Marius ' Mules ( muli mariani in Latin ) due to the amount of gear they had to carry themselves.