Late Roman Army Grade/Rank List under Anastasius

[Nathan Ross]

that places the Augustales and the Flaviales higher up the rank of grades than any of those below and perhaps hints at a move into the old centurional college, as it were.

Yes, could be - although I'd still say there are too many of them for them to be holding any sort of command role, and splitting off the top tier alone as sort of 'deputy ordinarii' seems vague.

It is striking how much further up the pay scale they are than men like the imaginifer and optio, who were pretty highly placed in the centuries of the old legion. Frustrating how little we know about it all...

the Ordinarius of the 'front' century and his colleague, the Ordinarius of the 'rear' century, are also equals. The difference is tactical.

Maybe - it's a shame we don't know more about the comparative pay differences (if there were any) between centurions of the earlier legion. If they were all paid the same - except the primi ordines - then perhaps we could see the same thing here.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about those 'clerici ve deputati'. I'd been assuming the terms just means 'clerks or deputies', and referred to general low-grade admin staff (perhaps even slaves, as they don't seem to draw pay). I wondered if they might be part of the 'supernumeraries' or 'accensi' mentioned by Vegetius, carried 'on the strength' so to speak.

However, it occured to me that they might be clergymen. I do believe there's a reference to a 'deacon' attached to a military unit some time in the 5th-6th century (can't remember the source though!*). Could 'clerici' be priests as this date?

If we could work out who these men might be, it would help to determine how many of them there might have been (2 priests? 50 clerks?) and whether they would have been listed on the century rolls.

EDIT * - it's in AD Lee's War in Late Antiquity pp191-192: epitaph to a 'deacon of the numerus defensorum' from Thracia, 5th-6th century; there's also evidence from Egyptian papyri of presbuteroi in military units, and a note in the letters of Pope Pelagius about three priests being appointed to a unit in Italy.