EUREKA - Roman army troops

[D B Campbell]

I'm not sure which of your three (identical?) posts to reply to, so I picked this one.

I've learned a lot from you, ... for instance, about respect for sources, ...

Okay, let's apply that dictum to Josephus. (And I'll try to put a positive spin on this, mindful of your paranoia that I "have a habitual habit of trying to place negative connotations on most of my postings".)

Let's be clear: Josephus says that "he proclaimed [or, by extension, produced/created] differences [or, by extension, divisions] among the soldiers". If you wish to argue that Josephus selected his soldiers according to some social class system, you'll have to do better than that.

Well if you have a problem with it, take it up with William Whiston, A.M. translator of “The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged,” Hendrickson Publishers. See page 634 “He also distributed the soldiers into various classes, whom he put under captains of tens, and captains of thousands.”

Here you have demonstrated that you have no respect for Josephus, but only for his eighteenth-century translator. Remember that (a) words in English can have different meanings at different times [Paton's translation of Polybius where he has the Romans "shooting" rubble into the water at Lilybaeum springs to mind], and that (b) a proper study of primary sources means a study of Greek and Latin, otherwise you are at the mercy of your chosen translator. I have given you a literal translation of what Josephus actually wrote, so that you can make an informed decision about your social class theory, but for some reason (perhaps your "habitual habit" of contradicting anything with my name on it? :wink: ) you prefer to cite Whiston. (My goodness, any undergraduate student of Greek would at least know to go to the Loeb, however imperfect, for his/her Josephus crib.)