Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

EXERC1TUS. 108 EXERCITUS.

limits of 300 anil 600. They were regularly
numbered from 1 to 10, the centurion of the first
century of the first maniple of the first cohort
was the guardian of the eagle, and hence the
first cohort seems always to have heen re-
garded as superior in dignity to the rest. Late
writers, instead of eohortes, prefer the some-
what vague term numeri, which appears in
Tacitus and Suetonius, and perhaps even in
Cicero. Numeri seems to have signified
strictly the muster roll, whence the phrases
re/erre in numeros, distribuere in nnmcros,
and thus (erred to denote any body of
legionaries. Whenever Cuhors occurs in
the Latin classics in connection with the
legion, it always signifies a specific division
of the legion ; but it is very frequently found,
in the general sense of battalion, to denote
troops altogether distinct from the legion.
—(ii.) Manipuhis. The original meaning of
this word, which is derived from manus, was
a handful or uisp of hay, stratv, fern, or the
like, and this, according to Roman tradition,
affixed to the end of a pole, formed the pri-
mitive military standard in the days of Ro-
mulus. Hence it was applied to a body of
soldiers serving under the same ensign. When
the phalanx was resolved into small com-
panies marshalled in open order, these were
termed manipuli, and down to a very late
period the common soldiers of the legion
were designated as manipulares or mani-
nularii, terms equivalent to gregarii mi-
lites. When the phalanx was first broken
up, it appears that each of the three classes
of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, con-
tained 15 maniples ; but before the second
Tunic war the number of maniples in
each of these classes was reduced to 10.
Hence it is easy to calculate the number
of soldiers in each maniple, according
to the varying numbers in the legion, it
being always borne in mind that the Triarii
never exceeded GOO, and that the Yelites
were not divided into maniples, but distri-
buted equally among the heavy-armed compa-
nies.—(iii.) Centuriae. The distribution of
soldiers into centuriae must be regarded as co-
eval with the origin of Rome. Plutarch speaks
of the force led by Romulus against Amulius
as formed of centuries ; and from the close
connections between the centuries of Servius
Tullius, and the organization of the military
force, we cannot hesitate to believe that the
term was communicated to the ranks of the
phalanx. For a long period after the estab-
lishment of the manipular constitution, the
legion contained 60 centuries.—(iv.) Signum.
This word is used to denote a division of the
legion, but it is doubtful whether it signifies a
maniple or a century.—(v.) Ordo generally

signifies a century, and ordinum doctor is syno-
nymous with centurio, and ducere honestum
ordinem means to be one of the principal
centurions in a legion.—(vi.) Contubcrnium.
This was the name given under the empire
to the body of soldiers who were quartered
together in the same tent.

3. Hastati, Principes, Triarii, Pilani,
Antepilani, Antcsignani, Principia. — The
Hastati were so called, from having been
armed with a hasta, the Principes from hav-
ing occupied the front line, the Triarii,
otherwise named Pilani, from having been
ranged behind the first two lines as a body
of reserve and armed with the pilion, while
the first two lines were termed collectively
Antepilani, from standing in front of the
Pilani. In process of time, it came to pass,
that these d«signations no longer expressed
the actual condition of the troops to which
they were attached. When Polybius wrote,
and long before that period, the Hastati were
not armed with hastae, but in common with
the Principes bore the heavy pilum : on the
other hand, the pilani carried hastae and not
pila, while the Principes were not drawn up
in the front, but formed the second line.
—Antcsignani. While the Hastati and Prin-
cipes, taken together, were sometimes termed
Antepilani, iii contradistinction to the Triarii,
so the Hastati alone were sometimes termed
Antcsignani, in contradistinction to the Prin-
cipes and Triarii taken together. The term
Antesignani having become established as
denoting the front ranks in a line of battle,
was retained in this general sense long after
the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii had dis-
appeared.—Another term employed to denote
the front ranks of an army in battle array is
Principia, and in this sense must be care-
fully distinguished from the Principia or
chief street in the camp, and from Prin-
cipia, which in the later writers, such as
Ammianus and Yegetius, is equivalent to
principales milites. Postsignani does not
occur in any author earlier than Ammianus
Mareellinus, and therefore need not be illus-
trated here ; the Subsignanus miles of Tacitus
seems to be the same with the Vexillarii.

4. Rorarii, Aceensi, Ferentarii, Velites,
Procubitores.—When the Hastati had, in a
great measure, ceased to act as tirailleurs,
their place was supplied by the Rorarii,
whose method of fighting has been described
above (p. 105). The Aceensi, as described by
Livy, were inferior in equipment to the ro-
rarii, although employed in a similar manner,
and seem to have been camp-followers or
servants, and hence the name is given to
those also who attended upon magistrates or
other officials. At a later period the aceensi