04-29-2018, 11:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-30-2018, 12:31 PM by Nathan Ross.)
I've been thinking about the six military units sent from the east to reinforce Honorius at Ravenna in 409/10.
The event is described by both Zosimus and Sozomen, and we've discussed it fairly often in this thread, amongst others:
Sozomen 9.8: In 6 arithmoi, about 4,000 soldiers sailed to Ravenna at night from the east.
(ἐν ἓξ ἀριθμοῖς ἀμφὶ τετρακισχίλιοι στρατιῶται νύκτωρ τῇ Ῥαβέννῃ προσέπλευσαν ἐκ τῆς ἀνατολῆς·)
Zosimus 6.8.2: "Just then six tagmata sailed in which had been expected since the time of Stilicho but which had only now arrived from the East in accordance with the alliance; they numbered four thousand*."
(ἓξ τάγματα στρατιωτῶν προσωρμίσθησαν, πάλαι μὲν ἔτι περιόντος Στελίχωνος προσδοκώμενα, τότε δὲ πρὸς συμμαχίαν ἐκ τῆς ἑῴας παραγενόμενα, μυριάδων ἀριθμὸν ὄντα τεσσάρων.)
(*the text says myriads, but as we've discussed elsewhere the word should probably be chiliades - 4000 - which accords with Sozomen)
Both Z's tagmata and S's arithmoi should probably be translated into the latin numeri (units) - so we have six units of soldiers from somewhere in the east (ie the eastern empire), numbering 4000 men in total. I don't mean to get into another discussion about the unit numbers here - suffice to say that each unit, if they were around the same size, probably numbered about 600-700 men. Perhaps there were four of 600 and two of 800... we don't know.
But which units were they? Looking at the eastern army lists in the Notitia Dignitatum, I see that there's a rather anomalous group of six auxilia palatina units under the Magister Militum per Illyricum: the Ascarii Seniores, Ascarii Iuniores, Petulantes Iuniores, Sagittarii Lecti, Invicti Iuniores and Atecotti.
Could these have been the 'six numeri' sent west to help Honorius? If so, what might have happened to them?
Looking at the western Notitia, there's an odd concordance in the list for the Comes Hispanias. His units include the Ascarii Seniores, Ascarii Iuniores, and something called the Invicti Iuniores Britones. Is this a coincidence? The shield designs are different, although the one given for the western Ascarii Iuniores does look quite similar to the one for the (eastern) Petulantes Iuniores - and there's no unit of that name in the west...
Could it be, perhaps, that the six eastern numeri formed the nucleus of the reconstructed western field army that Constantius III led into Gaul, and that the Comes Hispanias Asterius (presumably) led two or perhaps three of these units into Spain in 419 to reconquer it from the Vandals and Alans? (the eastern section of the ND would not, of course, have been updated after c.395, so the units would appear as duplicates).
Interestingly, however, the list for the Comes Hispanias also includes three units which appear to be among those named by Claudian as the force sent to Africa to defeat Gildo in AD398: the Sagittari Nervii, Felices Seniores and Invicti Seniores...![[Image: shocked.png]](https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/images/icons/shocked.png)
(P.s. I notice, looking through the notes for Cromwell's Rise and Decline of the Late Roman Field Army, that Dietrich Hoffman (in Das Spätrömische Bewegungsheer, 1969) made the same guess about the six auxilia from Illyricum!)
The event is described by both Zosimus and Sozomen, and we've discussed it fairly often in this thread, amongst others:
Sozomen 9.8: In 6 arithmoi, about 4,000 soldiers sailed to Ravenna at night from the east.
(ἐν ἓξ ἀριθμοῖς ἀμφὶ τετρακισχίλιοι στρατιῶται νύκτωρ τῇ Ῥαβέννῃ προσέπλευσαν ἐκ τῆς ἀνατολῆς·)
Zosimus 6.8.2: "Just then six tagmata sailed in which had been expected since the time of Stilicho but which had only now arrived from the East in accordance with the alliance; they numbered four thousand*."
(ἓξ τάγματα στρατιωτῶν προσωρμίσθησαν, πάλαι μὲν ἔτι περιόντος Στελίχωνος προσδοκώμενα, τότε δὲ πρὸς συμμαχίαν ἐκ τῆς ἑῴας παραγενόμενα, μυριάδων ἀριθμὸν ὄντα τεσσάρων.)
(*the text says myriads, but as we've discussed elsewhere the word should probably be chiliades - 4000 - which accords with Sozomen)
Both Z's tagmata and S's arithmoi should probably be translated into the latin numeri (units) - so we have six units of soldiers from somewhere in the east (ie the eastern empire), numbering 4000 men in total. I don't mean to get into another discussion about the unit numbers here - suffice to say that each unit, if they were around the same size, probably numbered about 600-700 men. Perhaps there were four of 600 and two of 800... we don't know.
But which units were they? Looking at the eastern army lists in the Notitia Dignitatum, I see that there's a rather anomalous group of six auxilia palatina units under the Magister Militum per Illyricum: the Ascarii Seniores, Ascarii Iuniores, Petulantes Iuniores, Sagittarii Lecti, Invicti Iuniores and Atecotti.
Could these have been the 'six numeri' sent west to help Honorius? If so, what might have happened to them?
Looking at the western Notitia, there's an odd concordance in the list for the Comes Hispanias. His units include the Ascarii Seniores, Ascarii Iuniores, and something called the Invicti Iuniores Britones. Is this a coincidence? The shield designs are different, although the one given for the western Ascarii Iuniores does look quite similar to the one for the (eastern) Petulantes Iuniores - and there's no unit of that name in the west...
Could it be, perhaps, that the six eastern numeri formed the nucleus of the reconstructed western field army that Constantius III led into Gaul, and that the Comes Hispanias Asterius (presumably) led two or perhaps three of these units into Spain in 419 to reconquer it from the Vandals and Alans? (the eastern section of the ND would not, of course, have been updated after c.395, so the units would appear as duplicates).
Interestingly, however, the list for the Comes Hispanias also includes three units which appear to be among those named by Claudian as the force sent to Africa to defeat Gildo in AD398: the Sagittari Nervii, Felices Seniores and Invicti Seniores...
(P.s. I notice, looking through the notes for Cromwell's Rise and Decline of the Late Roman Field Army, that Dietrich Hoffman (in Das Spätrömische Bewegungsheer, 1969) made the same guess about the six auxilia from Illyricum!)
Nathan Ross
