Death and Resurrecton of the Phalanx

[MD]

The proportion of cavalry in Roman armies rises from about 15% in the 2nd Century to about 20% in the late 4th century.

I would be interested to see where you got these figures from, Marja. My impression is that the Romans always fielded far less cavalry than that.

Cheesman's auxiliary counts ... Treadgold's interpretation of the Notitia ...

I misunderstood you, Marja. I thought you meant the proportion of cavalry in any given army (i.e. deployed for battle), rather than the total cavalry dispersed along the frontiers. :whistle:

In the eastern theatre such fractions seemingly do not look unusual for Imperial field armies.

With the numbers given by Josephus Varus marchs with 2 legions and 4 alae + allies to Jerusalem in 4BC, which leads to something about plus minus 20 %. Vespasian army in 66 AD had about 18 % cavalry, Titus force (Tacitus) in 70 AD about 17 %, the army mustered by Arrian against the Alans 21 %, while the (hypothetical?) army in De Munitionibus Castrorum has 22 % cavalry.