03-28-2012, 10:50 PM
Quote:From the top of my head, Speidel (in Roman Army Studies II, pp. 21 and Centurial Signs and the Battle Order of the Legions, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 154 (2005), pp. 286-292) argued that maniples actually experienced an "epigraphic renaissance" in the late 2md early 3rd century and that this hints at an increased tactical importance. He speculated that this may have had to do with specialization of tasks and equipment within the cohorts.
Speidel goes over similar ground in the revised version of The Framework of an Imperial Legion, in R. J. Brewer (ed.), The Second Augustan Legion and the Roman Military Machine. Cardiff: 2002, 125-143, and Emperor Hadrian’s Speeches to the African Armies – A New Text. Mainz: 2006, but I do not share his confidence about the sequence and tactical meaning of the centurial symbols. For an antidote to Speidel's enthusiastic conclusions, see J.C. Mann's ‘Roman Legionary Centurial Symbols’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 115 (1997), 295–298.
I consider maniples/paired centuries in the Ancient Warfare Centuria special. (I suggest the system of paired prior and posterior centuries survived until c. AD 324.)
