Note 451 — Chapter IV · THE CENTURIES AND THE CLASSES

Usually scholars (cf. Domazewski, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. iii. 1953 f.; Delbrück, Gesch. d. Kriegsk. i. 227; Smith, Röm. Timokr. 39) assume fifteen centuries for the fifth rating, on the authority of Livy i. 43. 7; Dion. Hal. iv. 17. 2; vii. 59. 5. But our knowledge of the phalanx is only inference, which to be acceptable must have at least the merit of possibility. The number fifteen is wrong because it could not have been divided evenly between the two legions; and on the other hand it will be shown later (p. 208) that in all probability the fifteenth century was not military but was added in the make up of the comitia centuriata.