01-20-2021, 03:06 PM
Nathan wrote:
Why would any army have such a complicated organisational structure?
Well I would not say it was complicated from a Roman point of view, with them having a full understanding of the organization. But with the limited amount of information we have and some of the numbers, like 800 men being equally the number of men in the horizontal organization of a legion and also 800 men in the vertical organization of the legion, does leave me wondering which organization they could be referring to (horizontal or vertical).
Nathan wrote:
And what makes you think seniores and iuniores were originally combined in the same units?
That is my conclusion based on my tribal research.
Nathan wrote:
The division seems quite simple to me. A numerus probably comprised c.600-800 men. Maybe up to 1200 for some legions.
Thank you for clearing up the Ammianus translation. Taking your lowest figure of 600 men for a numerus, Constantine’s demand for 300 men from each numerus would mean that Constantine was seriously intent on weakening Julian’s army.
Nathan wrote:
A detachment of 300 men is marched off to a war in the east. This detachment later forms a new unit with the additional title Iuniores, now based in the east, and is recruited back up to establishment size. The original remaining unit of 300-500 in the west is also recruited back up to size, and given the title Seniores to distinguish it from the new one. Operational strength, of course, may have remained low for some time in both cases.
Our theories have one similarity. I believe the seniores being one-sixth of the iuniores when detached, could also be increased to their permitted maximum strength, which would be equal to the iuniores.
Nathan wrote:
At any point subunits of several hundred men can be taken from the numeri and either used as temporary detachments (as with the Adrianople example here), or combined with other detachments to form temporary mixed units for special duties (as with the Lanciarii and Mattiarii in Persia). Very simple, very practical - a flexible military system to meet the needs of a complex era!
I can’t argue with that.
Following Sozomen’s six arithmoi, amounting to about 4,000 men, I find the arithmoi unit size only comes into play when I remove the reserve centuries from the legion. For this to work, the seniores must be included in the legion. If I remove the seniores, the arithmoi organization goes out the window, but the vexillation system dominates. I haven’t done this out of sheer randomness, every removal of something has to match data in the primary sources.
You write that a numerus “probably comprised c.600-800 men, maybe 1,200 men. For me personally, I want more information, like how many centuries and how many men in a century. If it was 80 men, then I would have to rule out a numerus being 600 men as 80 men per century do not divide by 600 men. As the 80 men per century and the 800 men per numerus are compatible, and create 10 centuries, then how are they deployed? Ten centuries wide by one century deep, two centuries wide by five centuries deep, or five centuries wide by two centuries deep? How is each century deployed? Twenty wide by four deep? Ten wide by eight deep? Etc. etc. A critical examination of the data cannot be overlooked, and can produces some surprises .
I’ve deducted what the size of an infantry century is. It has been tested against the data and has stood the rigors. There are two examples in Ammianus that indicate rounding, and not by much. The size of a century conforms to the frontage required for forming cavalry lanes. The frontage of the cavalry lanes made by the infantry does determine the frontage of the cavalry squadron. Then it is a matter of choosing the depth of the cavalry squadron by elimination with the cavalry numbers found in the sources.
Ammianus mentions seven legions and a number of numerii amounting to 20,000 men were stationed at Amida. Basing my calculations on the legions consisting of only iuniores and my calculation of the size of a numerus as per the size of Sozomen’s arithmos, I get exactly 20,000 men as per Ammianus, so something is working for me.
My anguish lies in that I do not fully understood what some of the Roman military doctrines are for the Late Roman legion and army. Are the Romans still stripping cavalrymen from each squadron in the army to form the commander’s guard cavalry? If this doctrine was still in play, then Julian would have to have a total of 1,200 cavalry at Strasbourg so as to have 200 guard cavalry.
Adrianople tells me they are still using the reserves to guard the baggage, as per the old triarii doctrine, which indicates the three line deployment is still in play. However, the number of centuries I have for an arithmos/numerus are only for a two line deployment. If I add the reserves, then what should such a unit be called if a numerus only applies to a two line deployment?
