05-24-2013, 01:21 PM
Oh no! The "coortis" word crops up at another point in his work, nothing to do with the extraordinarii. What I meant was that it is a valuable fact in Polybius that he now and then gives Roman terms which in translations usually look like translated Greek and not like real life Roman words, contemporary to Polybius. So, readers usually pass them by or wonder about how they would be in Latin, when Polybius does just that, that is giving the terms in Latin.
Regarding the extraordinarii, the thing is that all models include them in the "Wings" when, according to Polybius, they were not. However from the little you wrote of the translation you are using, the text should be "about a third of the cavalry".
"ἐκ δὲ τούτων λαμβάνουσι τῶν μὲν ἱππέων εἰς τοὺς ἐπιλέκτους ἐπιεικῶς τὸ τρίτον μέρος, τῶν δὲ πεζῶν τὸ πέμπτον. τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς διεῖλον εἰς δύο μέρη, καὶ καλοῦσι
τὸ μὲν δεξιόν, τὸ δ’ εὐώνυμον κέρας. " (6.26.8 )
Regarding the extraordinarii, the thing is that all models include them in the "Wings" when, according to Polybius, they were not. However from the little you wrote of the translation you are using, the text should be "about a third of the cavalry".
"ἐκ δὲ τούτων λαμβάνουσι τῶν μὲν ἱππέων εἰς τοὺς ἐπιλέκτους ἐπιεικῶς τὸ τρίτον μέρος, τῶν δὲ πεζῶν τὸ πέμπτον. τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς διεῖλον εἰς δύο μέρη, καὶ καλοῦσι
τὸ μὲν δεξιόν, τὸ δ’ εὐώνυμον κέρας. " (6.26.8 )
