08-03-2013, 07:55 PM
Quote:I wish I'd had the time to finish that 'little thesis' of mine (soon!) as defending it would have covered all of this... I am hoping that in trying to defend that theory against all comers will help us get closer to the truth and see if there's real evidence that the theory doesn't hold up.
While I'm intrigued by your thesis and wish you all the best in completing it, I'd be rather dubious of any theory that claims to cover the whole matter of late army organisation without some pretty spectacular new evidence to back it up!
People have been crunching numbers over this for years and years, and we have fairly believable general estimates, but as I've been suggesting there's so much that we simply don't know about the later Roman army (or any Roman army, for that matter) that unified theories are always going to be... hypothetical.
It might be better to look for evidence that the theory does stand up, rather than trying to refute evidence that it doesn't - that seems a rather legalistic than scientific approach (although generations of Roman orators would applaud you for it...)
But, as I say, I hope you get the thing done soon and then we can pick over it - I look forward to it!
:-)
Nathan Ross
