Scepticism about Vegetius\' analysis of the Late Roman Army?

[Sean Manning]

As far as I know "vir illustris et comes" means that he was a nobleman.But why do people think Vegetius' "Epitoma rei militaris" are an evidence for the decline of the roman army?In my eyes he describes a very well trained and disciplined army!

Well, doesn't he complain about how the soldiers of his day are worse than their predecessors and need reform? On the other hand, complaining about how things these days were clearly worse than their predecessors was a popular pastime for Roman intellectuals of any period. Which goes back to the question of how much we can trust him on...