02-19-2014, 09:58 PM
A lot of the contributions I have made over the last year or so have been adjuncts to the organisational research I started; but many have been very interesting digressions and have influenced the final(ly..... :errr: .) end product no end with additional 'extra's - and this too is prompting such.
A few possibilities raise their heads in this case.....
- In the manipular (cf Polybius) legion the triarii are the 'senior' elements by virtue of their age and experience and role as the final reserve
- this leads to the Later Republic when the triarii evolve into the pili and lose their spears/hasta and permanently serve in full strength centuries/maniples, but are no longer the 'oldest'; the likely assumption being that the centuries are more homogeneous and fight in cohorts and not the previous legion-based triplex acies
- by the late 3rd century, as the inscription attests, however, the lanciarii have now appeared and it is possible that either, or both, the pili centuries have re-taken up the hasta, or, perhaps more likely given the ideas I've been having on how cohorts may have fought, are now forming a '3rd line' once more (but still in the cohort) behind the lanciarii or even archers by then and thus regained a more accurate triarii 'naming'
- When it comes to the 'ordo', which I have often seen referred to as a possible replacement term for 'maniples'
- is it, firstly, possible that an optio ordines is the senior optio of the two in an ordo/maniple, for that could make sense?
- and that the Early Empire primi ordines (as the 5 senior centurions of the enlarged first cohort) are so described because they each actually command an ordo/maniple-sized double-century?
A few possibilities raise their heads in this case.....
- In the manipular (cf Polybius) legion the triarii are the 'senior' elements by virtue of their age and experience and role as the final reserve
- this leads to the Later Republic when the triarii evolve into the pili and lose their spears/hasta and permanently serve in full strength centuries/maniples, but are no longer the 'oldest'; the likely assumption being that the centuries are more homogeneous and fight in cohorts and not the previous legion-based triplex acies
- by the late 3rd century, as the inscription attests, however, the lanciarii have now appeared and it is possible that either, or both, the pili centuries have re-taken up the hasta, or, perhaps more likely given the ideas I've been having on how cohorts may have fought, are now forming a '3rd line' once more (but still in the cohort) behind the lanciarii or even archers by then and thus regained a more accurate triarii 'naming'
- When it comes to the 'ordo', which I have often seen referred to as a possible replacement term for 'maniples'
- is it, firstly, possible that an optio ordines is the senior optio of the two in an ordo/maniple, for that could make sense?
- and that the Early Empire primi ordines (as the 5 senior centurions of the enlarged first cohort) are so described because they each actually command an ordo/maniple-sized double-century?