Caesar taking horses from officers for Germans

[JeffF]

I was rereading the passage in Caesar's Gallic Wars where he mentions this. It suddenly struck me that if Caesar were talking about tribunes only then the number could only be about 60 or so (from the 6 Tribunes from each legion), even if there were some hangers-on and adventurers with Caesar of similar social rank could the number be much more than a hundred? Adding Caesar's own and those of the legates would be a mere handful more. If everyone had more than one horse (probably very likely) then around 300 horses might seem reasonable. I don't see any numbers when Caesar talks about the German cavalry, does this method of counting officers horses serve as an adequate method of estimating their numbers? Does the Latin text of this mention the owners of these horses as 'tribunes' or does it include legates or even centurions?

[M. Demetrius]

counting officers horses serve as an adequate method of estimating their numbers

Well, I freely admit I'm no expert here, but that would seem a sketchy way of estimating. Some officers might have more than the average number of horses. Another might have had bad horse-luck and be on his last mount. It's an interesting idea, though. Hope someone has a better answer than mine. :wink:

Imagine the numbers of horses in the herd following ten legions with two or three thousand mounted men (counting cavalry alae)! That's a lot of hay bales per day!