EUREKA - Roman army troops

[antiochus]

That is disappointing! We all want to read your work and see your full argument. Then we can get down to debating it in earnest

The idea that Livy means that the old phalanx was organized similarly to the Macedonian phalanx, not just that it fought in a phalanx, is one I haven't heard before.

Everything indicates Livy is comparing the Roman army organisation from 508 BC to 406 BC with the Macedonian organisation. It should not be interpreted as detailing a fighting style as this goes against the primary sources. Dionysius makes it clear in 508 BC; the Romans conducted a census after the practice had been abandoned by Superbus. Plutarch supports this claim. The following maths in the primary source shows this included a reform of the army. In 494 BC another reform occurred as both Dionysius and Livy tell how the Romans had to fight a war on three fronts. Both give the Roman army at 10 legions.

Now what the Romans did here was take their available manpower and in order to fight on three fronts they decreased the size of the centuries for each army. So originally, the century contained 100 men, but they introduced the 80 man century and the 60 man century (20% increments). This way they could have three armies and the larger army commanded by the dictator (given as four legions) was assigned to the campaign that was considered the greater threat. This explains why in Dionysius you have references to cohorts of 600 or 800 men.

But above the cohort, the Romans have another military organisation which is larger, and to make matters confusing, they also call it a cohort. A clear example of this is Livy and Polybius’ account of the battle of Illipa. Livy has three cohorts in the outflanking manoeuvre while Polybius has one. Both are correct as both are using different organisations of the legion, with Polybius using the army organisation while Livy is using the political organisation.

The data before me shows in book VIII eight, Livy’s is making a comparison between the Macedonian organisation and the Roman centuriate army organisation of 508 BC to 406 BC. Both are nearly similar and the difference is between 1 and 20 men, with the Roman army having the slightly larger number of men.