Late Roman Army Grade/Rank List under Anastasius

[Nathan Ross]

I refer you to a common translation (one of many) that states: “From that period the Roman legions, which now were called by their number.”... We need to check the original text. It would be interesting if the text had the word arithmoi, but I think it would be the Greek word for number.

I thought you might have remembered this post (and following) from earlier in this thread, which has the original Greek text. Yes, Sozomen says arithmoi, and calls the units tagmata, but the meaning is clear. Arithmos (Greek) and Numerus (Latin) are the same, and in context I believe Soz must have been referring to legions here.

And they could well mean numerii of the legion, with a legion being made up of a number of numeri.

No, it is a list of units - numeri - and some of those units are legions. You cannot read it otherwise in context, surely.

it could also refer to the auxilia unit of the Iovii.

It could, although that would be numerus Ioviorum, not Iovianorum. The balance of probability is that this refers to the Iovianii.

legion in Slab A and B, numeri in Slab C.

It seems to me patently obvious that the text on Slab B refers to the list on Slab C. If you wish to believe otherwise, we would have to ask what the purpose of this inscription might be.

Any reason why the Perge is absent of familiar names?

No idea. We're missing the tesserarii too. But you commented that the names were 'unlegionary', not that certain grades or ranks associated with the legions were missing.

think of the countless debates I had stressing this point and you lot dismissing it all.

Nobody has dismissed the idea that the legions had cavalry. You have previously claimed, I think, that the legion cavalry were somehow attached to auxiliary alae, or that alae were part of the legions. Or that legions of the principiate had 480 cavalry. These are different questions.

My 1600 does not include officers and supernumeraries, nor have I shown how it is broken into subunits, or what it could be with the removal of the seniores.

Who are the 'seniores' and why would they be removed? What figure do you get when you add the 'officers and supernumeraries'?

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we have 225 veredarii troopers remaining which splits nicely into 9 cavalry turma of 25 troopers. These are attached to the remaining 9 centuries. The first Turma is a double-strength Turma of Veredarii

Yes - this is pretty much the formula I was trying to use in this version.

The '9 x 25 + 1 x 50' structure looks fairly neat, and deals with our oddly numbered Veredarii Alii effectively. It does look very unbalanced though. Things would help a great deal if we had different grades of ordinarii, but sadly that ain't so...

Horse archers / scouts / bandit hunters / skirmishers / road patrolmen / piquets - I'm sure our veredarii could fill any or all of these roles!