07-04-2009, 06:20 AM
Quote:Jesper wrote:
Yes I know that, according to Livy, in a crisis during the siege of Veii the Equites Equo Privato was created for the first time. The problem is I do not know for how long they remained in service... You believe they were disbanded after the battle then? Loads of other authors seems to believe they remained in service throughout the republic, Mommsen is one of these authors.
Ok if Mommsen and loads of authors believed they remained in service, then why haven’t they given their numbers and organisation and shown us through empirical data via orders of battle proof they were around for some time. I have them as seniores, at 500 men, sued at Veii. Now being aged from 46 to 60 years of age, I’m not sure if all would have been fit for military service. The incident of 209 BC is in relation to being punished for possibly cowardice at Cannae.
Quote:Jesper wrote:
I am bad at the numbers of the roman republican army, but would the romans need more cavalry if they only assigned 3 centuries of Equites to each legion(?). The 18 centuries would then cover 6 legions, what did they do if they needed more than 6 legions?
How often did that happen?
They raised eight legions for Cannae, and with them the appropriate number of cavalry. Dionysius (IX 5-13) records the Roman army for 480 BC at six legions and 1200 cavalry. When the Romans raised 24 legions during the 2nd Punic war, they would have also raised the cavalry for each legion (7200 men).
