104 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



their own native territory, and by me they will «tand on the day thou 

 cliallengest.' " 



144. The allied forces under Medb thus consisted of nineteen separately 

 organized bodies, each under a local king and each consisting of thirty hundred 

 men. Thirty hundred, in fact, was the traditional complement of the army of 

 a petty state. 



145. The technical name of the whole levy of 3,000 men was mill. Where 

 the Annal.s of Ulster (1222) liave the entry : ro thinolsat Gaill Erenn cethri 

 catha ficlict co Dclgain, co tdinic Aedh Neill ecus Mac in Uga cethri catha na 

 n-cujhaidh, the D text says : numcrati ii^ completa hcUa, qui faciunt Hihcrnica 

 numerationc 72 millia armatorum . . . 12 millibas arniatorum, numeratione 

 suprccscripta. 



146. The Irish cath or tricha c6t has its exact counterpart in the legio, 

 originally the whole arm)' or normal military levy of the Eoman state. The 

 Eoman tradition was that under Romulus, i.e. in the earliest times, Eome had 

 but one legion, and this legion numbered 3,000 men, i.e. 100 men from each of 

 the thirty tribes. 



147. The Eomans divided their lighting population into two classes, 

 junior es and seniorcs. It seems clear that they originally regarded the younger 

 men as forming the normal fighting strength of the population, and the older 

 men as forming a reserve whicli might be called out to meet an emergency. 

 Juvcntus is an habitual term for the folk of age to serve in arms. Precisely 

 the same usage is found in Irish. In the passage cited above from Tain Bo 

 Cuailngi, the word which I have twice translated " fighting men " is die = 

 Q\\venci)juve7ies,juniores,juventus,a.ndn\imevo\iseKa,in])les of this usage could 

 easily be collected. 



148. As the Eomans grew into a great military power, they did not 

 abandon the ancient constitution of their army, but retained and developed it. 

 Instead of expanding their army indefinitely with the growth of their state, 

 they could only tliiuk of forming additional bodies on the model of their primi- 

 tive army of 3,000, and this they continued to do even under the Caesars. 



149. In the Spartan army, we can trace the same tradition. The army 

 consisted of six fiopat, and the /lopa at one period numbered 500 men, giving 

 a total of 3,000 men. Each of the three Dorian tribes of Sparta before 

 Cleomenes contained ten wfiai, making thirty dijial in all. In Athens, in the 

 age of Theseus, each (pourpla contained thirty yivri. 



150. " The phalanx soldiers in the army of Alexander amounted to 18,000 

 and were divided . . . into six divisions, eacli named after a JVIacedoniau pro- 

 vince from which it was to derive its recruits."' Each province would thus 



' Smith's Smaller Diet, of Antiquities, p. 16ii. 



