Late Roman Army Grade/Rank List under Anastasius

[D B Campbell]

There's an odd line in Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History (I.8) about the provision of Christian worship for soldiers. It reads: "From that period [i.e of Constantine] the Roman Legions, which now were called by their number, provided each its own tent, with attendant priests and deacons." "Now were called by their number" seems obscure, as they always had been! - could this be a faulty translation of 'which now were called numeri'? In which case, this might be evidence for the change in unit nomenclature going back to the early 4th century.

You have indeed found a faulty translation. The original Greek is perfectly clear:

   

The underlined portion can be translated "the Roman legions, which were now called arithmoi" (or, in Latin, numeri). Whether Sozomen is right or not is another question.