05-24-2013, 04:52 PM
Quote:............
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". ..........
On the first part of that - can you elucidate on what you mean, please? The extraordinarii were selected from the 'Allies' (that term having generated from the apparent fact that the two Allied/Socii legions formed on the wings of the Roman legions (in the Consular 2+2 army)) - and that this 'word' Alae later became the name of a cavalry 'cohort' after the reforms of Augustus (but could have been before too) for similar reasons. So what is it that Polybius suggests "they were not" - I haven't spotted anything to suggest there's something awry?
On the second, I was simply conserving typing.
But:- in Robin Waterfield's translation it's "...a third of the cavalry..."
- on the Lacus Curtius site it's "....about a third...." (which I hadn't thought to check before - as it just made so much sense)
- the Evelyn S Shuckburgh translation it's ".....a third..."
- in the W R Paton (Loeb) version it's "....about a third..."
That is interesting. 900/3 = 300 (being therefore exact and a number I would like to see anyway given the theory I'm going for) was not something I had thought to query. Is your "....about..." your own translation and an obvious deduction given the sentence construction? In the thesis bit on Polybius you will be able to see why I would be keen to identify such!
