03-23-2014, 01:38 PM
Quote:Can you post that part of the text? I missed it in the portions above.
Sure,
"προσκουλκάτορας προσέταξεν ἄνδρας γενναίους ἐκ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν λαγκιαρίων καὶ ματτιαρίων χιλίους πεντακοσίους"
"He set as scouts brave men from the arithmos of the lanciarii and the mattiarii 1,500" 13.21
This is clear in the text. It cannot be translated as "the brave men of the arithmos".
Quote:I believe Malalas is just calling the two legions numeri. This again suggests that the word numerus could refer to military units of various sizes, and was not an exact term.
Zosimus also calls them lochoi not tagmata, or teloi which would point at them (and the Victores as far as he was concerned), ) being something less than a legion. There he is in agreement with Malalas (and the latter's source). Do we know that they were legions?