Late Roman Unit Sizes

[Steven James]

Hmm, why should it read that? The passage is about events in Italy, so why should either writer tell us how many troops 'stayed in the east'? And since the eastern Roman army comprised far more than 10,000 men, why are these troops mentioned in particular? And how could anyone make such a clumsy mistake?

It seems quite unnecessary. The six arithmoi were probably six numeri of auxilia palatina, perhaps the ones previously based in eastern Illyricum.

c.660 men per numerus seems a good estimate for palatine auxilia, just as a palatine legion may have numbered c.850 and a comitatensis or limitanei legion c.1200. There doesn't seem any reason to amend our sources so all the unit numbers are the same.

I haven't come to that conclusion from just those two sources. Clumsy mistakes can be made by ancient authors, and quite easily. The primary sources are full of them if you investigate. Some ancient authors provide extremely correct unit numbers for the Late Roman army, such as some of the numbers found in Meletius (252 soldiers), or Macarius (1104 soldiers). The 252 men is a subunit. All of Ammianus' numbers are all sharing the same organisation, as do his cavalry numbers. Zosimus, Vegetius, Orosius and Synesios, are also on the same page as Ammianus, so when the numbers all sing the same song, then I follow the beat.

As to your figures of 660 men, and 850 men, well good luck with going down that road. I hope you can provide a breakdown of all the subunits that go with those numbers. I have done so with my research, and every number can be found in the primary sources.  I don't need to make up numbers. However, where I differ from most, is I am following the primary sources that claim there were still centuries, maniples and cohorts for the Late Roman army. Following that principal has helped me to understand what the primary source numbers are about.

And the icing on the cake is Archelaus and the ridicules story of the 9,000 Christians. The source for those Christian numbers have been copied from a military roster. The numbers are damn good, both infantry and cavalry, and are on the same page as Ammianus, Zosimus, Vegetius, Orosius, Synesios and Sozomen etc.