03-06-2012, 11:47 PM
Quote:I must try to get hold of a copy of Arrian, I only wish one were online, but I've not found it yet. ... I was most interested in his note that Arrian's reference to Ala and 512 men was as part of a digression and comment on earlier Greek organisations - so, not dismissed, but certainly queried.Arrian wrote in Greek, which is probably why there isn't an internet version yet. That and the fact that there's only (to my knowledge) a German translation from 1964 and an American translation from the (?)1970s.
I quoted the entire line earlier in the thread, Mark. Arrian is describing the Hellenistic Greek method of organizing cavalry regiments. When he gets to the one that numbers 512, he says -- as an aside -- that this is the same as a Roman ala. That's all.
Quote:Hyginus ... that treatise is one of the most difficult and crazily complex systems I have ever seen. ... At best I would see it as a mathematical puzzle to set clever students. I simply don't believe that anyone would make something so complicated - when I genuinely do believe there is an alternate.Like many technical treatises, it requires interpretation rather than simple translation. Gilliver's translation is no doubt helpful -- I don't use it, so I can't comment meaningfully -- but the text really needs a Commentary.
Quote:... and the subpraefectus alae (perhaps known under another name).The what now? :?
