Six Numeri for Honorius

[Nathan Ross]

an original eastrn list from 370 would need to have those 'altered' lists of 394 to show the major changes of, say, 378. And how would Britain be in chaos but, apparently, still not changed by 394?

Oh sure, I didn't mean that the 370 list remained unaltered - just that this date would be first when an officially divided empire would (or could, or would need to) draw up such a document.

However, maybe our ideas about 'updating' are too modern? It seems as though, while some bits were certainly updated (whole sections deleted, or totally changed, as in the Rhine areas), this thoroughness was not carried across all the lists - other sections just had new information added without old and outdated stuff being removed. Quite what whoever was doing this thought they were doing, and why, is anybody's guess - maybe there's some distinctly Late Roman method to the madness!

That's why I doubt that whatever remedy was applied to the chaotic state of northern Britain was properly reflected in the ND. Perhaps the addition of a small central field force under the Comes Britanniae was a symptom of the instability of the northern British frontier throughout that era?

Why can't you read German!

Indeed! And why can't I read Latin, or Greek, or French, or Italian, or...

That makes 394/5 the only time when we find so many units of East and West in that very spot I think?

Possibly - although there's only one unit from the east, the Hiberi, as far as I can see... unless the 'Regii' are the eastern auxilia numerus?

One would think that the immediate aftermath of Frigidus would see far more 'victorious' eastern units in the area than 'defeated' western ones.