AE 1981 777

[Frank]

Frank wrote:
I know, that Vegetius says, that the triarius was the lowest rank centurio.

I've missed this. Could you give me the reference Frank?

Vegetius II,8

The structure of the 1st cohort according to Vegetius is:

centurio primi pili 400 Men
primus hastatus 200 Men
princeps primae cohortis 150 Men
secundus hastatus 150 Men
triarius prior 100 Men

The structure sounds a bit weird and most historians guess, that Vegetius mixed things up here.
I also found an interesting article from Erich Sander (1950) about the triarius; unfortunately in german.
http://www.rhm.uni-koeln.de/095/Sander.pdf

Sanders theory is, that the triarius is the 6th centurio of the 1st cohort, commanding the vexillatio veteranorum, which is not an official centuria of the 1st cohort, but needs an active commander. Well, his only weak argument for this theory is, that the term triarius fits very well to veterans.
Nevertheless an interesting read about Vegetius and why we should trust him, that a triarius really existed, whatever his role and rank was. And about the good old roman tradition to reuse old terms and give them a new meaning.