C. 5.—­The number of these corps had, we find, grown erormously since the days of Hadrian, when, as Dion Cassius tells us, there were 19 “Civic Legions” (of which three were quartered in Britain).  No fewer than 132 are now enumerated, together with 108 auxiliary bodies.  But we may be sure that each of these “legions” was not the complete Army Corps of old,[356] though possibly the 25 of the First Class, the Legiones Palatinae, may have kept something of their ancient effectiveness.  Indeed it is not wholly improbable that these alone represent the old “civil” army; the Second and Third Class “legions,” with their extraordinary names ("Comitatenses” and “Pseudo-Comitatenses"), being indeed merely so called by “courtesy,” or even “sham courtesy.”

C. 6.—­In Britain we find the two remaining legions of the old garrison, the Second, now quartered not at Caerleon but at Richborough, under the Count of the Saxon Shore, and the Sixth under the “Duke of the Britains,” holding the north (with its head-quarters doubtless, as of yore, at York, though this is not mentioned).  Along with each legion are named ten “squads” [numeri], which may perhaps represent the ten cohorts into which legions were of old divided.  The word cohort seems to have changed its meaning, and now to signify an independent military unit under a “Tribune.”  Eighteen of these, together with six squadrons [alae] of cavalry, each commanded by a “Praefect,” form the garrison of the Wall;—­a separate organization, though, like the rest of the northern forces, under the Duke of the Britains.  The ten squads belonging to the Sixth Legion (each under a Prefect) are distributed in garrison throughout Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmoreland.  Those of the Second (each commanded by a “Praepositus”) are partly under the Count of the Saxon Shore, holding the coast from the Wash to Arundel,[357] partly under the “Count of Britain,” who was probably the senior officer in the island[358] and responsible for its defence in general.  Besides these bodies of infantry the British Army comprised eighteen cavalry units; three, besides the six on the Wall, being in the north, three on the Saxon Shore, and the remaining six under the immediate command of the Count of Britain, to whose troops no special quarters are assigned.  Not a single station is mentioned beyond the Wall, which supports the theory that the withdrawal of the Twentieth Legion had involved the practical abandonment of Valentia.[359]

C. 7.—­The two Counts and the Duke were the military leaders of Britain.  The chief civil officer was the “respectable” Vicar of the Diocese of Britain, one of the six Vicars under the “illustrious” Pro-consul of Africa.  Under him were the Governors of the five Provinces, two of these being “Consulars” of “Right Renowned” rank [clarissimi,] the other three “Right Perfect” [perfectissimi] “Presidents.”  The Vicar was assisted by a staff of Civil Servants, nine heads of departments being enumerated.  Their names, however, have become so wholly obsolete as to tell us nothing of their respective functions.