Note 864 — Chapter XII · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR.

The number of men greatly varied; the extremes of the Legion are 6,800 including cavalry under Scipio, and 1,500 under Constantine. In Livy’s Legion there were 5,000 infantry and 300 horse (viii. 8). Perhaps we may assume an average of 4,000 foot—a full Austrian regiment. Each line of the three numbered 10 cohorts, and each cohort three maniples. The latter were named from manipulus, a handful (of grass, &c., Georg. i. 400), because this rustic article at the end of a pole was the standard of Romulus.