03-10-2016, 07:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-10-2016, 08:43 PM by Nathan Ross.)
(03-10-2016, 03:51 PM)Steven James Wrote: Livy (40 27 3) mentions four cohorts of extraordinarii (extraordinariis cohortibus) assembled at the praetorian gate.
But I don't think he mentions vexillations. Quattuor extraordinariis cohortibus duas adiunxit praeposito M. Valerio legato, erumpere praetoria porta iussit. Four cohorts is just four cohorts. Caesar also mentions cohorts apparently operating in this way, but doesn't call them vexillations either.
(03-10-2016, 03:51 PM)Steven James Wrote: from every period of the legion’s history there was enough data confirming that five vexillations to a legion was standard practice for 1,000 years, like there are cohorts, maniples and centuries.
I can understand if you don't want to discuss this any further - I believe you've set out your ideas several times already. But I'm still not sure where you're drawing this from. Aside from the reference to the vexillum in Livy's description of the army of the 4th C BC - a division of the third line of the manipular legion, numbering 62 men - I don't know of any suggestions that a vexillum or vexillation was a part of the standard internal organisation of the entire legion. The term seems reserved for detached units of varying sizes. There are the vexillarii mentioned by Tacitus and Hyginus, but these seem to have been time-served veterans remaining with the legion, rather than men belonging to a legion divided into five parts. Do you know of any references to a legion of the imperial era internally divided in this way?
Nathan Ross
