Late Roman Unit Sizes

[ValentinianVictrix]

Evan wrote:
Just because they are heavy infantry doesn't mean they can remove their armor.

Making troops fight that isn’t in keeping with their doctrine would not be good for morale. What I think is happening here is the Mattiarii and Lanciarii are two different troops types and can be generally classified in the primary sources as scutati or targeteers. I definition of targeteers are troops who can fight missile combat of close combat, like the hastati. This leaves the question what are the heavy infantry called?

The Lanciarii and Mattiarii are not two different unit types, just different unit titles. The Scutarii were an Equites Scolae unit, guard cavalry if you like. They seemed to have been brigaded with the Equites Sagittarii, another Scolae unit.

I think the 'heavy infantry' you mentioned would either have been called Legionarii or Milites.