Roman Legion in late Antiquity

[Robert Vermaat]

my German is not up to sorting it out. Perhaps someone with a better command of the language could help.

Mine neither! But it looks to be full of good stuff - thanks. Hopefully somebody might be able to help...

Mine is. :wink: It's a good article, but mostly about the unit from Deutz, where it was, went and why. Not much about the cohorts I'm afraid.
The conclusion made here is taken from Speidel, who argued that that the men in this unit, like in other vexillations, were taken from several different cohorts, and this tactical organisation remained in place, albeit with smaller cohorts:

"Die Cohortenangabe erklärte M.P. Speidel in den von ihm behandelten Texten folgendermaßen:
Die Soldaten wurden bei Bildung einer vexillatio nicht nur aus den einzelnen Legionscohorten
ausgezogen, sondern blieben für die Dauer der Expedition nach Cohorten gegliedert,
wobei diesen verkleinerten Cohorten wohl - wie sonst den Centurien - taktische
und administrative Funktionen zukamen."

The cohorts were actually taking up the tasks which the original centuries had performed. Instead of centuries, the new and smaller legion was organised in cohorts:

"das heißt, die wesentlich verkleinerten Cohorten hatten die Funktion, die sonst
den Centurien zukam. Der Grund für eine Gliederung nach Cohorten, statt wie zunächst zu
erwarten, nach Centurien, liegt wohl in der erheblichen Reduzierung der Soldatenzahl. Vermutlich
waren die neu entstandenen Cohorten so klein, daß sich eine weitere Unterteilung in
Centurien erübrigte."

I'll have a look in Hoffmann (of course), plus other articles about LR cohorts.
From what I recall, the cohort remained to basic building block of the LR legion, but authors disagree about the number of men.