Late Roman Unit Sizes

[Nathan Ross]

I have attached all posts after your question about Leo's taktika to the 'Late Roman Unit Sizes' thread.

Thanks! I was about to suggest doing just that, in fact... mile:

Ammianus states that he was accompanied by “12 legions under the general Terentius. (Ammianus, 27 12 16) 12 legions at 2000 men = 24,000 men or 14,400 men at 1200 men per legion. Would a force of 24,000 legionaries be too large for this campaign?

That's an interesting point, yes. Terentius would seem to be the dux Armeniaca, and in the ND this official commands three legions (XV Apollinaris, XII Fulminata and I Pontica). The first two of these are old principiate formations, and formed the main military force of the old senatorial governors of Cappadocia (Arrian being the most famous one - both appear in his 'array against the Alans' - his presumed order of battle (see below) might suggest a good comparison for Terentius's expedition). The third is probably a tetrarchic foundation.

So it seems that Ammianus is using 'legion' here to refer to a much smaller unit, perhaps a cohort or a pair of cohorts - thinking off the top of my head, if the two old legions were c.5000 men and the new one c.2000, that would maybe provide 12 units of c.1000 men each for Terentius's force - but it almost certainly isn't as simple as that!

[url=http://s_van_dorst.tripod.com/Ancient_Warfare/Rome/Sources/ektaxis.html][/url] (can't seem to get this link to work!)