02-07-2008, 04:11 PM
Last night on the train ride home while reading Xenophon's "The Persian Expedition" I came across this passage in Book IV Chapter 8:
"When everyone was in position and they had formed the companies, there were about eighty companies of hoplites, each company with roughly the strength of a hundred."
Now of course I am reading this in translation and can not vouch for the accuracy against the original Greek.
However, if we believe J.E. Lendon's main thesis in his book "Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity" that the Romans were so enamored of the Greeks and their Heroic Age that this influenced Roman military science, then perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to consider that this company organization Xenophon mentions might have echoes in the Roman Century.
On the other hand I must say that both Tarbicus' and Hibernicus' explanations seem very logical.
:wink:
Narukami
"When everyone was in position and they had formed the companies, there were about eighty companies of hoplites, each company with roughly the strength of a hundred."
Now of course I am reading this in translation and can not vouch for the accuracy against the original Greek.
However, if we believe J.E. Lendon's main thesis in his book "Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity" that the Romans were so enamored of the Greeks and their Heroic Age that this influenced Roman military science, then perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to consider that this company organization Xenophon mentions might have echoes in the Roman Century.
On the other hand I must say that both Tarbicus' and Hibernicus' explanations seem very logical.
:wink:
Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
Burbank CA
