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Where was the Roman Army in AD408?
#16
Quote:Maybe so - but can we be confident about the meaning of 'Roman' by that point?

Fair enough. Most of Aetius' troops were Alemanni and Alans serving in professional Roman regiments, according to Drinkwater.

Quote:If Honorius could pull 6000 troops from Dalmatia to 'defend Rome', I would think Stilicho's original force at Ticinium could hardly have been much larger.

Honestly I've always thought that this references the 5 comitatenses units (4 legions and 1 numerus) under the Comes Dalmatae command in the Notitia. The majority of units there were Limitanei, not Comitatenses or Palatinae, so that might have been all that was available.

Quote:I would think it more likely that the Italian field army did not exist, than that a force of thirty thousand trained and disciplined Roman regular troops stood idly by at some depot in northern Italy while Alaric and his Goths rampaged up and down the peninsula for nearly three years!

Yes, but how many cities did Alaric and Athaulf sack? Isn't it entirely possible that because Italy didn't need Limitanei, that they were forced to garrison the field army regiments in walled towns as a deterrent against Alaric? After all, Italy is entirely undefended in 440 until Sigisvult begins garrisoning presumably some field army units and foederati. Even in 451, Aetius didn't bring any troops from Italy across the alps. Sidonius implies that the only troops Aetius left Italy with were his personal bodyguard (his army was stationed at Arles).

If 4000 men was considered enough to defend the walled circuit of Ravenna, then you could easily end up with just as many troops in a handful of cities alone. Rome's walled circuit was huge, and I'd imagine it had at least the Protectores and the Schola stationed there (much good they were, considering they were placeholder and parade units). Milan was important, and we've already mentioned military depots and towns such as Ticinum or Aquileia. Those three alone, assuming Ravenna's number was the average, eat up 12,000 men. Assuming the same unit composition too, that's 18 of Stilicho's 30 regiments.
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RE: Where was the Roman Army in AD408? - by Flavivs Aetivs - 01-22-2017, 05:42 PM

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