Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/218

Chap. VI. OF MANCHESTER t8y IV. • • » * 9 • m . IT is fuppofed by the fenfible and accurate Horfeley, that the Roman garrifon in Britain during the fecond third and fourth centuries amounted only to three legions, the fixth Vi&orious, the twentieth Valerian and Vi&orious, and the fecond Auguftan, .and the auxiliaries regularly attendant upon them And with ,this fuppofitipn the Hiftory of Dio the Geography of Ptolemy and the Itinerary of Antonine feem all to concur, as they all mention thefe three and only thefe three legions to be refident in the ifland This number of legions, as appears from the .com- plement of a fingle legion during the fecond third and fourth centuries, which was fix thoufand one hundred foot and > feven hundred and twenty-fix horfe % and from the ftated proportion , of the auxiliary to the legionary troops, which was equal in the . infantry and double in the cavalry *, muft have contained about thirty-fix thoufand fix hundred foot and fix thoufand five hun- dred and thirty-four horfe. Such muft have been the greateft amount of them, even if every corps had its full complement of men. And we can have little doubt, but among a nation which was extremely numerous s , and in a country which was only in part fubdued, the legions and their auxiliaries were conftaqtly fupplied with frefli recruits and maintained in their • full force. .. But, thus confidered, three legions and their auxiliaries are plainly inefficient for the purposes of garrifbning the ifland. -The long lift which the two Itineraries give us of the Roman ftations in Britain abfolutely demonftrates them to be inefficient. -That li£ prefents us with one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty ftations, even after the Romans had retired to the valr .lum of Antoninus, and had abandoned all the ftations that exr tended from Invcrnefs to the Friths. Thofe muft certainly have been all of them conftantly garrifoned by the Romans, as other- • lyife they would neither have been conftru&ed at firft nor have Bb a ' been