Late Roman Army during the 5th century

[Robert Vermaat]

Goldsworthy raised doubts about the supposedly larger size of the late army.

I'd be interested to know more about those doubts. Granted, army numbers in any ancient source need to be taken with considerable salt, but most sources I've come across seem to accept that the later army (at least in the 4th century) was larger.

It depends a bit on guesswork about unit strengths (assuming we can even find a standard unit size to begin with). If we assume that, on average, the scholae numbered 500 per unit, field army legions 1.000, border legions 3.000, auxilia palatina 800, border infantry units 300 and cavalry units 350, the total of units mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum yields an army of about 450.000 men.
However, scholars such as Nicasie think this might be seen as a minimum rather than a maximum, to be taken as a more realistic number, as opposed to a 'paper strength'. The establishment strength could even be 650.000 if each cohort indeed was to be 500, and this number is what Agathius gives us for the 4th-c. army: 645.000 (Agath. V.13). Of course, it could well be argued that since each unit may have been understrength at many times during their existance, the lower number would probably be a good guess too.