Interesting article.
I have tried to write an essay on the subject years ago.(altogether unpublished). In it I did base my arguments on Roman histories, but by trying to place the quote's in their time and not take them at face value. Little snippets of text can hide genuine information, if you read them carefully.
For instance: Livy AUC III, 69 says for 446 BC:
In other words, what we have here is a description of the organization of a maniple. The line serves no purpose in the text other than to liven it up. Originally the line was written for a reason and in my opinion that can only be that it contained some novelty or change. And that novelty almost certainly was the pairing of centuries in maniples itself.
The above is just an example, but in that way I believe it's possible to create a timeline of republican army development.
I have tried to write an essay on the subject years ago.(altogether unpublished). In it I did base my arguments on Roman histories, but by trying to place the quote's in their time and not take them at face value. Little snippets of text can hide genuine information, if you read them carefully.
For instance: Livy AUC III, 69 says for 446 BC:
Quote:Cohortes sibi quaeque centuriones legerunt; bini senatores singulis cohortibus praepositi.This is usually translated as: Each of the cohorts selected their own centurions, and two senators were placed in command of each cohort. However if Livy quoted an earlier historian he (or his source) would have used a Greek tekst, as all early Roman histories were written in Greek. In Greek "cohort" usually translates as "speira", but that same word is also used to translate "maniple". At that early time there were as yet no cohorts as even Polybius doesn't mention them in his description or the Roman Military system. So we can assume an error in translation and the text should have read:
Quote:Manipuli sibi quaeque centuriones legerunt; bini senatores singulis manipulis praepositi.
In other words, what we have here is a description of the organization of a maniple. The line serves no purpose in the text other than to liven it up. Originally the line was written for a reason and in my opinion that can only be that it contained some novelty or change. And that novelty almost certainly was the pairing of centuries in maniples itself.
The above is just an example, but in that way I believe it's possible to create a timeline of republican army development.
drsrob a.k.a. Rob Wolters
