03-27-2014, 11:09 PM
Michael wrote:
So, your theory is that the legion was, in effect, a cadre army', somewhat like the German army of the early 1900s.
I’m not familiar with the early German army of the 1900’s (the Kaiser’s army?) or the Prussian army of 1870, but yes it’s a cadre legion. To this can be added units of auxiliary troops like archers etc. I can’t see any reason not to add more Roman units to the core legion if need be. I have followed Vegetius closely in relation to this and the legion appears like a Napoleonic corps with each division within the corps having its own artillery. When I compiled the legion units I ended up not having the numbers end with a zero, so I knew something was wrong. It was then that I decided to calculated the decanus (decanii plural singular not sure) as being additional as one reference from Vegetius tells us, with the end result being the number of deans were exactly what I was missing. This answered one question and produced another….why are they additional. So after more mathematical grid work, I believe it has something to do with the way the legion is deployed, which has the subunits deployed on a wider frontage.
I’ve just added another papyrus I found in Coello’s work that is a perfect mathematical fit, so I must be doing something right. And most importantly, all the numbers abide to my Servian constitution research for this time frame.
As I have explained in my previous post, the legion’s organisation follows that of a cross word (across and down), which is how the Roman voting bodies are organised (the century assembly is organised horizontally and the tribal assembly vertically).
So, your theory is that the legion was, in effect, a cadre army', somewhat like the German army of the early 1900s.
I’m not familiar with the early German army of the 1900’s (the Kaiser’s army?) or the Prussian army of 1870, but yes it’s a cadre legion. To this can be added units of auxiliary troops like archers etc. I can’t see any reason not to add more Roman units to the core legion if need be. I have followed Vegetius closely in relation to this and the legion appears like a Napoleonic corps with each division within the corps having its own artillery. When I compiled the legion units I ended up not having the numbers end with a zero, so I knew something was wrong. It was then that I decided to calculated the decanus (decanii plural singular not sure) as being additional as one reference from Vegetius tells us, with the end result being the number of deans were exactly what I was missing. This answered one question and produced another….why are they additional. So after more mathematical grid work, I believe it has something to do with the way the legion is deployed, which has the subunits deployed on a wider frontage.
I’ve just added another papyrus I found in Coello’s work that is a perfect mathematical fit, so I must be doing something right. And most importantly, all the numbers abide to my Servian constitution research for this time frame.
As I have explained in my previous post, the legion’s organisation follows that of a cross word (across and down), which is how the Roman voting bodies are organised (the century assembly is organised horizontally and the tribal assembly vertically).
