01-09-2013, 05:57 AM
Since Polybius came up in the discussion I have to point you to his account that in each legion there were 2 centurions for every speira but also 6 chiliarchoi for every legion. Were they 10, we would be able to speak about possible commanders of cohorts but 6? Maybe cohorts did not have a single commander but somehow the command of any detachment of one or more cohorts were indeed commanded by them?
What is very interesting is a rank mentioned by Polyaenus which is called exacosiarchos (leader of 600), which seems to be Roman, since he is addressing Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. On the other hand, he also mentions the rank of the myriarchos (10,000) which makes things difficult to interpret. Yet, the "leader of 600" awfully sounds like a leader of a cohort. My problem is that I have found no other mention of any such rank in any other Greek text I know of but still...
Some problems also arise when trying to interpret Plutarch's lochagoi and taxiarchoi of the Roman army. Too many times mentioned, much obscurity as to the nature of the ranks and maybe, just maybe, if they are not two words for the exact same rank, so if one is a term for centurion we will have to find what the other rank is...
What is very interesting is a rank mentioned by Polyaenus which is called exacosiarchos (leader of 600), which seems to be Roman, since he is addressing Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. On the other hand, he also mentions the rank of the myriarchos (10,000) which makes things difficult to interpret. Yet, the "leader of 600" awfully sounds like a leader of a cohort. My problem is that I have found no other mention of any such rank in any other Greek text I know of but still...
Some problems also arise when trying to interpret Plutarch's lochagoi and taxiarchoi of the Roman army. Too many times mentioned, much obscurity as to the nature of the ranks and maybe, just maybe, if they are not two words for the exact same rank, so if one is a term for centurion we will have to find what the other rank is...
