Note 198 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES (continued 3)
Reading edition
The fact is that 'sixty thousand' was a favourite phrase for a great number, and that 'sixty' was used in this sense just as the Romans198 had used it in classical times and just as Russian peasants (I think I have read) use it to this day. The 'twice six hundred thousand men', who were burning to fight for England,199 and the £180,000 (60,000 × 3) of Gervase (1159), are traceable, doubtless, to the same source.