Late Roman Unit Sizes

[Nathan Ross]

an ίλη όπλιτϖν (a cohort?) in Diocletian's day  as  numbering  500  men

What an ilê of hoplites might be in official parlance is anybody's guess! But a cohort seems close enough. We know that cohorts existed at this point, as we have inscriptions dated only five years previously left by Maximian's troops in North Africa.

This reference is to the men commanded by Eugenius working on the harbour at Seleucia in AD303, who revolted after being required to do extra fatigues, proclaimed their commander emperor, got drunk and marched to Antioch, where they were defeated by the citizens.

So Libanius is using the word ilê to refer to an infantry unit. Another example of the vagueness of Greek-Latin-Greek translations of military terminology!