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Where was the Roman Army in AD408?
#32
(02-13-2017, 05:31 PM)FlavivsĀ Aetivs Wrote: Marcellinus Comes mentions in 413 that the forces dispatched by Heraclianus to usurp Honorius (3000 men)

That's an interesting suggestion. The original text seems a bit odd though: what do latinists make of it?

Heraclianus Africae comes cum septingentis et tribus milibus nauium mox ad urbem Romam egressus est. Occursu Marini comitis territus et in fugam uersus adrepta naue solus Carthaginem rediit ibique ilico interfectus est.

Gibbon takes issue with the numbers, at least: "The Chronicle of Marcellinus gives Heraclian 700 ships and 3000 men: the latter of these numbers is ridiculously corrupt; but the former would please me very much." (DFRE Vol.III, Footnote 1, p.268)

Gibbon also says that Orosius gives Heraclianus an armada of 3200 ships, apparently including everything from rowing boats upwards... Here again there seem to be interpretation problems though. The original text seems to be:

nam habuisse tunc tria milia septingentas naues dicitur (Orosius, ad pag. Book 7,42)

... which A.T. Fear (2010) translates at 3700 ships. The wording here seems to me sufficiently close to Marcellinus's septingentis et tribus milibus nauium to suggest (perhaps via a text corruption?) that he too was referring to number of ships and not the number of men...

Meanwhile, Hydatius claims that the resulting battle saw the death of 50,000 men! (Heraclianus movens exercitum de Africa adversus Honorium, Utriculo in Italia in conflictu superatus effugit in Africam, caesis in loco supra dicto L millibus armatorum.)

So something seems a bit shaky about all of these numbers, I would say. It does seem that Honorius's army was commanded by the comes Marinus, as Marcellinus says; Orosius says that this officer was later dismissed from the service after executing Heraclianus without orders. But we should remember that Honorius still had the 6 arithmoi from Constantinople - 4000 men - which on their own could have outnumbered Heraclianus's force, even if we accept the figure of 3000.
Nathan Ross
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RE: Where was the Roman Army in AD408? - by Nathan Ross - 02-13-2017, 10:36 PM

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