Maniples? How long did they exist

[Nathan Ross]

Maniples are the new term for a Contubernium.

It's the other way round, according to Vegetius (II.13): "The 10-man section (contubernium) used to be called a maniple because they fought in groups (manus) joined together."

Vegetius is drawing on much earlier sources, including the republican Cato the Elder. It's very possible he's just confused here, and 'maniple' never meant a section of ten men!

There's no connection that I'm aware of between numerus and maniple either. Numerus was a long-standing military term referring to a force of variable size, no more exact than our word 'unit'.

The Historiae Augustae mentions legions during Probus reign, one legion being numbered the 10th legion. I am comfortable with the legion for this period being organised into maniples.

The HA is quite fascinating, but also very dubious and of unknown date. A couple of otherwise unknown and possibly fictional legions are mentioned (in the sections on Aurelian and Probus) and the military terminology many well be vague too. The Life of Probus has tribunes addressing troops in maniples, which suggests a larger group, while the Life of Pescennius Niger has a reference to decem commanipulones, which actually does suggest that a 'maniple' comprised ten men...

Ammianus also used 'maniples' in several places. This might seem definitive, but infortunately he also claims that the Persian army was organised into maniples, which suggests he was a bit vaguer about his usage than we might like! But the HA Life of Probus also mentions a Persarum manu ('company of Persians'), so hmm perhaps Ammianus is right after all!

So a maniple might have been a group of ten men in the later army, or it might have been a general term meaning a group ('manus') smaller than a cohort, perhaps. Or it might have been a sort of unofficial word for any group of soldiers. I don't think we can be any clearer than that, based on some very unclear sources!