10-29-2021, 10:00 AM
By the 4th century, all military units were referred to as numeri, from legions to cavalry vexillationes and scholae. The word meant nothing more than 'unit', (literally 'number', the exact Greek equivalent is arithmos).
So the word did not describe a set number of men. A numerus of auxilia palatina may have been about 500-800 men, a numerus legionum could have been twice that size, and a numerus of limitanei much smaller. There's a note in the Strategikon suggesting that later military units had no set size.
There was an earlier use of numerus, going back to the 2nd century, to describe a (usually) irregular unit commonly stationed in a frontier region. The numeri exploratorum turn up quite early, so they were probably this type of unit. Guessing their size and composition is therefore difficult. 500-800 may be a reasonable assumption, but their numbers may have fluctuated based on the area they had to garrison or patrol.
The rank system of circitor-biarchus-centenarius-ducenarius first appears in the new cavalry units of the later 3rd century, and was then carried over into the scholae guard cavalry and the auxilia palatina. It does not seem to have been used by the legions, or by the older units who later became known as limitanei.
As these older units seem to have retained the principiate rank system, with the centurion renamed ordinarius, this was most likely the system used in the numeri exploratorum as well. The unit commander may have been a tribunus, or perhaps a praepositus on the model of the older irregular numeri from earlier centuries.
So the word did not describe a set number of men. A numerus of auxilia palatina may have been about 500-800 men, a numerus legionum could have been twice that size, and a numerus of limitanei much smaller. There's a note in the Strategikon suggesting that later military units had no set size.
There was an earlier use of numerus, going back to the 2nd century, to describe a (usually) irregular unit commonly stationed in a frontier region. The numeri exploratorum turn up quite early, so they were probably this type of unit. Guessing their size and composition is therefore difficult. 500-800 may be a reasonable assumption, but their numbers may have fluctuated based on the area they had to garrison or patrol.
The rank system of circitor-biarchus-centenarius-ducenarius first appears in the new cavalry units of the later 3rd century, and was then carried over into the scholae guard cavalry and the auxilia palatina. It does not seem to have been used by the legions, or by the older units who later became known as limitanei.
As these older units seem to have retained the principiate rank system, with the centurion renamed ordinarius, this was most likely the system used in the numeri exploratorum as well. The unit commander may have been a tribunus, or perhaps a praepositus on the model of the older irregular numeri from earlier centuries.
Nathan Ross
