Numerus- who was counted?

[Jugibar]

To avoid confusion, I should make it clear that whenever I use the term numerus it is supposed to represent the size of armies that are reported to us by primary sources.

This could be the total size or just the size of the infantry.

E.g. Arrian 3.8, Diodorus 17.53, Dio Cassius 62.8.2, Tacitus 14.34, etc.

again, the discussion seems to be so vague that I'm not sure what you have in mind

Maybe I'm missing something? (Actually ... probably I'm missing something. :errr: )

Macedon said what I was looking for:

So, what you are practically asking is what the numbers given in the sources usually mean?

What I tried to find in the rosters was if there was anything that explicitly said if slaves and/or non-combatants were not included in the numerus. Clearly, that did not help.

Are you suggesting that some of the men on the (handful of fragmentary imperial-era auxiliary) strength reports might not be soldiers?

No.

If you see a number of men attested in a military source somewhere, why would they be anything other than soldiers?

If the numerus is given in terms of homines, then it would clearly consist of slaves and camp-followers since they were "men". A good example would be Livy 21.8.3 where the strength (numerus) of Hannibal's army is given:

"abundabat multitudine hominum Poenus"

Which would be 150,000 men, not 150,000 soldiers.

I'm not sure where you got the impression that I was talking about units/regiments.