02-22-2012, 07:31 PM
Gentlemen,
It's been part of a pet theory of mine and that I hope to compose a short paper on and submit to this august forum that I joined the forum in the first place to expose - and seek valued criticism - but here goes a 'junior members' comment....
Origin of Quingenary - from a Logical & Deductive look at Roman Army Organisation:
The main sources, to which I'd add Polybius, have already been mentioned above. I would like to offer, firstly, a single statement that the standard infantry 'Century' was 80 men strong, representing the fighting complement, but not including 'Officers'. This seems now to have general acceptance and there is a deal of evidence to support it.
Now, if I'm looking to try and get to the magic 500 figure then it is certainly possible using a very reasonable potential organisation. If each Century is 80, then we only have to add a Centurion and an Optio to get to 492, for a 6 Century cohort. You could then add a further 6 for the Century's standard-bearer, although he could be a member of the first contubernia and certainly take the 'right-marker' position; if so, then a further 'NCO'/Runner/Tessarius would not be unreasonable. This gets us to 498. All we are missing then is the Cohort's standard bearer and the Cornicen (for averting the rest of the Cohort to any signals). It's certainly not unreasonable to therefore consider the deployed full strength cohort to be 500 strong. However, that is really a digression...
I would like to suggest that the origin of Quingenary is further back with the Polybian proto-cohort. In the 4,200 standard legion of Polybius this would consist of a unit the equivalent of 5 Centuries strong, whether or not the Triarii element was organised as a single century or as a maniple the equivalent of 2 half-centuries. Whilst operational use of the Cohort didn't classically appear until later and is often attested to the long running Hispanic conflict (shades of the Napoleonic French experience subsequently); the forces attested by Polybius as being used to form the Extraordinarii are the equivalent of 2 proto-cohorts from each Allied Legion - otherwise perhaps known as a 'double-strength cohort' of 10 centuries in size. Perhaps even known as a 'milliary cohort' (cohort being originally a generic, rather than specific term).
Us military types are known to be rather hidebound and I would like to therefore suggest that the origin of Quingenary may be further back than the early Imperial period when it was more commonly used to detail the size of units and that even when milliary cohorts were formed they harked back to an earlier age. The origins of our much later confusion given that 6 x 2 <> 10 may be earlier military usage.
I will also go further here and postulate that perhaps Hyginus and Vegetius were similarly confused - but that maybe for another day......
It's been part of a pet theory of mine and that I hope to compose a short paper on and submit to this august forum that I joined the forum in the first place to expose - and seek valued criticism - but here goes a 'junior members' comment....
Origin of Quingenary - from a Logical & Deductive look at Roman Army Organisation:
The main sources, to which I'd add Polybius, have already been mentioned above. I would like to offer, firstly, a single statement that the standard infantry 'Century' was 80 men strong, representing the fighting complement, but not including 'Officers'. This seems now to have general acceptance and there is a deal of evidence to support it.
Now, if I'm looking to try and get to the magic 500 figure then it is certainly possible using a very reasonable potential organisation. If each Century is 80, then we only have to add a Centurion and an Optio to get to 492, for a 6 Century cohort. You could then add a further 6 for the Century's standard-bearer, although he could be a member of the first contubernia and certainly take the 'right-marker' position; if so, then a further 'NCO'/Runner/Tessarius would not be unreasonable. This gets us to 498. All we are missing then is the Cohort's standard bearer and the Cornicen (for averting the rest of the Cohort to any signals). It's certainly not unreasonable to therefore consider the deployed full strength cohort to be 500 strong. However, that is really a digression...
I would like to suggest that the origin of Quingenary is further back with the Polybian proto-cohort. In the 4,200 standard legion of Polybius this would consist of a unit the equivalent of 5 Centuries strong, whether or not the Triarii element was organised as a single century or as a maniple the equivalent of 2 half-centuries. Whilst operational use of the Cohort didn't classically appear until later and is often attested to the long running Hispanic conflict (shades of the Napoleonic French experience subsequently); the forces attested by Polybius as being used to form the Extraordinarii are the equivalent of 2 proto-cohorts from each Allied Legion - otherwise perhaps known as a 'double-strength cohort' of 10 centuries in size. Perhaps even known as a 'milliary cohort' (cohort being originally a generic, rather than specific term).
Us military types are known to be rather hidebound and I would like to therefore suggest that the origin of Quingenary may be further back than the early Imperial period when it was more commonly used to detail the size of units and that even when milliary cohorts were formed they harked back to an earlier age. The origins of our much later confusion given that 6 x 2 <> 10 may be earlier military usage.
I will also go further here and postulate that perhaps Hyginus and Vegetius were similarly confused - but that maybe for another day......
