07-06-2012, 03:58 AM
You are not that far off though. The thing is that the men of the rank, centurions included should logically abide by some specific arrangement rule that would make arithmetical sense. Yet, taking into account what was the usual rule in Greek and later Roman (Byzantine) armies where there is much more evidence, the supernumeraries should be excluded from this arithmetical rule and be counted extra (hence super-numeraries). Officers fighting in the ranks are not supernumeraries but any kind of musician, herald etc were not counted to the nominal strength of a unit. Was this also the case in Imperial Roman armies? Who knows... I would say it was but, of course, I cannot prove it and damn it, I am not good at Latin yet...
