Late Roman Army Grade/Rank List under Anastasius

[Nathan Ross]

the diagram above contains 118 milites per century

116, plus one Ordinarius - 110 men in the ranks.

the front rank Augustales are the primani, the second rank flaviales are the secundani and so on until we get to the final rear rank of Flaviales who will be termed Primani.

I hadn't thought about it like that - but yes, it does seem to work out ok!

The weakness, I think, at the moment is the flanks - or more specifically, the rear file ranks.

Easily solved - one of the advantages of this setup is that we can move the different troops around within the main phalanx and keep to regular ranks and files of 6 / 8 / 10 / 16. Here's a revised version with protected flanks, two groups of 16 semissales on each side:

   

Alternatively, we could move a couple of full ranks of semissales to the rear of the formation, or have a single 8-man file of semissales at either flank.

can I ask why 36 munifices?

The number we have for the Munifices is -59. Presumably we have one man missing as he occupies a higher grade or position - I've called him the praeco, as he's the only available single soldier! - which would bring us to -60. That can be reconstructed as 160, 260, 360, etc. So the number of munifices in the ordo (assuming ten infantry ordines) would be 16, 26, 36, etc.

If you reduced the century from  the 11 depth here to 8 (Anonymous and Mauricius favour the usual 4, 8 and 16 file depths), you will lose 30 men

We're constrained (in this particular sort of arrangement) by the necessity of including all the grades within the ordo. The minimum number of munifices is 160 - 16 per ordo - but the numbers of semissales etc remains constant: 136 + 256 + 20 + 20 + (I think) the 4 double-pay beneficiarii, 2 librarii and 2 remaining tubicines, who would have to occupy positions within the ranks of the senior soldiers. This gives us 440 semissales, duplares and others - 44 per ordo.

So any arrangement would have to find places for 44 senior soldiers and at least 16 munifices. Conveniently, this means the basic century size steps up in tens: 60 is the minimum, then 70, 80, 90, 100... But we also have to allocate places within the array for the 3+7 Augustales Alii and the 6+14 Flaviales and Flaviales Alii. That cuts down the possible options in terms of arrangement.

The proposed arrangement above is the minimum, I think, that allows the semissales and munifices, if required, to keep files of 8, or double files of 16, within the phalanx. There's also a balance between semissales and munifices, which may or may not be important!

As I suggested above, this particular array could represent an old-style legionary century of 80 men (semissales and munifices alone), to which have been added three extra ranks of Flaviales and Augustales. The internal structure of the phalanx still allows the old 8 / 16 / 32 breakdown, but it's protected front and back by additional senior troops.