Zodiac and Late Roman Army Organisation

[Renatus]

So we are naturally wary when he writes that "a legion is six thousand armed men, so called from the word electo [ "selected" ], as though they were chosen, that is chosen to bear arms. ... The legion has sixty centuries, thirty maniples, twelve cohorts, two-hundred squadrons." Is this a rare gem amongst Isidore's other nonsense? (He elsewhere claims that there are 6,600 men in a legion.)

Dr. Campbell quotes from Isid. Etymol. 9.3.46-47. The latter paragraph reads,"Legio habet . . . turmas ducentas". A cavalry legion of 200 turmae: that's something to think about! Elsewhere, Isidorus states that a century has 100 men (Etymol. 9.3.48), a maniple has 200 men (Etymol. 9.3.50), a turma has 30 horsemen (Etymol. 9.3.51), and a cohort has 500 soldiers (Etymol. 9.3.52). It seems highly likely that all he did was to extract these figures from various sources and to divide them into his 6000-strong legion to produce the numbers in Etymol. 9.3.47.