Rome versus Pyrrhus

[Justin of the New Yorkii]

If I understand Steven correctly, he believes, not only that the Romans levied precise numbers every year, but that these numbers developed and changed throughout history.

I appreciate his view that ancient historians should be respected unless we can definitively prove otherwise, but my trade is journalism, so whenever I see any figures published, my first instinct is to sniff around for reasonable doubts about their veracity. That's fair, and he's right about modern scholars trashing the ancient sources almost reflexively. Certainly there's a lot of that.
But he seems to put an awful lot of faith in these numbers, given that the writers aren't here to answer follow up questions, and he speaks in absolutes; saying things like "a legion of 4800 men cannot exist. But a legion of 5000 men does exist as the primary sources state it does."

I'm not doubting the sincerity of the writers; I'm sure that when Plutarch, for example, said a legion was comprised of 5,000 men, he made every effort to check his facts, and I'm sure he had a source that he considered reliable.
I just wonder about the differences between paper and practice. I don't think it's a coincidence that Polybius, who served as a cavalry commander, gives leeway in his figures saying that a legion numbers between 4,200 men and 5,000, depending on the situation.

But, given that Steven isn't around to defend himself, I'll wrap it up here.