the century - fighting unit

[Paullus Scipio]

So you've decided this undated text is "early Imperial", have you?

...not at all! I haven't 'decided' anything ! :evil: This is the consensus of the majority of scholars who have studied this text - on internal evidence ( reference to dacian auxiliaries and Praetorians etc) it is most likely second century AD, possibly early third. The exception is Frere, who would date it to Flavian ( specifically Domitian's reign) times. Most people would consider that range of dates 'early Imperial'......

With the best will in the world, no archaeological evidence is ever going to tell us how many men were in a century.

....please read my post again - I did not contend that the archaeology can give us an exact number, merely that it is "consistent with" a nominal 80 per century, and that in practice the number in a century could vary widely, as evidenced by epigraphical evidence. This is what is called 'supporting evidence', and means that pseudo-Hyginus is not the only evidence we have for this number.