07-21-2019, 04:00 AM
Paralus Wrote:Yet Scipio chooses 300 as his cavalry "guard" in Sicily (29.1).
Ok, we are now jumping to a completely new campaign. And this might interest Michael Taylor. Scipio selected 300 men from the maniples and centuries, and these 300 cavalrymen are curious as to why they were not included in the centuries, the centuries of cavalry that is.
At Zama, Appian (The Punic War 41), "in this way his cavalry, Laelius commanding the right wing, and Octavius the left, while he and Hannibal took their stations in the centre, out of respect for each other, having a body of horse with them."
Doesn't sound like much, but all my research shows that sub commanders are also allocated a number of guard cavalry. Three of the Roman commanders at Cannae were allocated guard cavalry. Appian allocates them 1,000 men, but has taken the 300 cavalry and instead of dividing it among the commanders, has allocated the whole lot to every commander. The figure of 300 cavalry for the Sicilians is also a rounded number. To arrive at 300 cavalry, the total number of squadrons has been rounded.
