Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

292 11. the army, c. 420,602
the state’s responsibility in the fifth century, but commutation was permitted
at some stage. Cash substitution clearly benefited soldiers, since Maurice’s
attempt in 594 to reintroduce state provision contributed to a mutiny in the
Balkan army. 9 Overall, supplying the army, and especially an army on campaign,
represented by far the largest, costliest and most complex single
element in the administration of the empire, and so would be the first to
falter at times of crisis or dislocation.
Calculation of numbers in the late Roman army is a game with enough
variables to make a definite solution impossible. John Lydus in the sixth
century offers a global figure for the Diocletianic establishment two centuries
previously: 389,704 in the armies, 45,562 in the fleets, a total of 435,266.
Precision may lend credibility. Writing slightly later, Agathias offers 645,000
as the total military establishment at an unspecified date, which he contrasts
with the effective Justinianic fighting force of only 150,000, but he had an
axe to grind about Justinian’s supposed military neglect. 10 Justification of,
or extrapolation from, these figures on the basis of details of types of units
recorded in the Notitia is circular, since the sizes of individual units are not
recorded. The detailed calculations of Jones, however, produce a plausible
balance, with the eastern establishment outnumbering the western in a
ratio of 7:5. Limitanei constituted about two-thirds of eastern forces, but
only a half of western, and here the Notitia’s record of Gallic and African
limitanei drafted into the mobile armies reveals the impact of the collapse
of the Rhine and Danube frontiers after 406. But precise numbers are less
certain. 11
Global figures, if known, might help to determine the cost of the military
establishment, 12 but do not reveal the empire’s disposable military
strength, which depended on its ability to concentrate and provision troops
in particular locations. The largest armament attested for the fifth or sixth
century is the naval expedition mounted by Leo against Vandal Africa in
468, supposedly 100,000 strong, an unsuccessful outlay of men and money
from which the east took time to recover: the cost is recorded as over seven
million, or nine million, solidi. 13 On land, the rebel Vitalian is said by
Marcellinus to have led more than 60,000 men, while the eastern army of
52,000 in 503 is described by Procopius as the largest before or after. The
extraordinary nature of this army is suggested also by the special measures
needed to ensure provisions: a praetorian prefect, Apion, supervised supplies,
the inhabitants of Edessa received wheat to be baked for the troops,
and finally Apion returned to Alexandria to organize further supplies, while
a replacement prefect, Calliopus, controlled arrangements on the frontier.
9 Jones, LRE 623–30; Carrié (1995) sec. 2; Theophylact vii.1.
10 John Lydus, De Mensibus i.27; Agathias, Hist. v.13.7–8.
11 Jones, LRE 683–4; Whitby (1995) sec. 3. 12 Calculations in Hendy, Studies 175–8.
13 Procop. Wars iii.6.1, with Hendy, Studies 221.
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