The Augustan Army ; the continuation of the manipel organization

[Nathan Ross]

cohorts organized by manipels in emperor Domitian’s timeframe.

This is a reference to the equestrian cursus - Statius refers first to the emperor appointing an equestrian officer to a legion centurionate, then to an auxiliary cohort prefecture, then a legion tribunate, then a cavalry prefecture.

The reference to maniples relates to the legions, although the cohorts are auxiliary.

I would suggest that poetry of whatever era, and even classicising literary history, is not the best evidence for contemporary military organisation. Writers of the 1st century AD did use 'maniples' as a synonym for the legions (which probably still maintained the old manipular system, for organisational purposes) or for soldiers generally, but so did Ammianus, Claudian and the panegyricist Pacatus.

10 manipels (digging?). Another example of the manipel organization.

Not in this case. erucarum... decem maniplis refers to 'ten handfuls of rocket' (the plant).

The poem is pretty smutty, as the name of the collection might suggest! In a decorous old translation, the last lines are: "For, though I may seem fully equipped, 'twould be the work of ten handfuls of rocket to [induce me to] scrub through the ditches 'twixt thy thighs, and bethwack the worms swarming in thy coynte!"

Rocket was apparently considered an aphrodisiac, or cure for impotence: the poet is saying he would need to eat ten handfuls of it to be 'fully equipped'