Note 183 — Chapter XI · JUDAEA AND THE JEWS.

To the three legions there belonged five alae and eighteen cohorts, and the army of Palestine consisting of one ala and five cohorts. These auxilia numbered accordingly 3000 alarians and (since among the twenty-three cohorts ten were 1000 strong, thirteen 720, or probably rather only 420 strong; for instead of the startling ἑξακοσίους we expect rather τριακοσίους ἑξάκοντα) 16,240 (or, if 720 is retained, 19,360) cohortales. To these fell to be added 1000 horsemen from each of the four kings, and 5000 Arabian archers, with 2000 from each of the other three kings. This gives together—reckoning the legion at 6000 men—52,240 men, and so towards 60,000, as Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 4, 2) says. But as the divisions are thus all calculated at the utmost normal strength, the effective aggregate number can hardly be estimated at 50,000. These numbers of Josephus appear in the main trustworthy, just as the analogous ones for the army of Cestius (Bell. Jud. ii. 18, 9); whereas his figures, resting on the census, are throughout measured after the scale of the smallest village in Galilee numbering 15,000 inhabitants (Bell. Jud. iii. 3, 2), and are historically as useless as the figures of Falstaff. It is but seldom, e.g. at the siege of Jotapata, that we recognise reported numbers.