Idea for an event.

FritzOfTheSS said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_legion#Late_Empire_.28from_284.29

Roman Legions were used in the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) until the 7th century. While the earliest CK2 takes place in is the 8th, perhaps have some kind of event to reform the Legion to replace traditional Knights?

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I doubt this would ever get pushed for the CM start. It clearly states the 7th century, and by then I wouldn't even call them proper legionaries anymore, just heavy infantry. Hell, I'd go as far as to say BEFORE the East/West split of the empire, during Constantine's time, legionaries were already gone, except in name.

One thing I could see happening is an even earlier start date in the 7th or even 6th century (Justinian?), introducing playable Roman culture, who have legionaries as cultural retinues, but this is stretching realism already.

You can use your retinues, divide them into stacks compromising of:

Center: Heavy Infantry
Flanks: Auxiliaries (mostly horse archers and archers)

Be amazed at the power of your 400 men.

FritzOfTheSS said:

Restoring the Roman Empire seemed a stretch, but it was added anyways

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That's an alternate history stretch, not a set history stretch.

I wish they allowed renaming of retinue armies. As restored Rome I had recreated at least five of the major existing Comitatenses army of 400 AD, and placed them all in historical locations. But even though they are accurate to numbers and locations, they are all 'Army of X' based on the courtier, instead of the realistic "Comitatenses Prima Gallica" or "Quinta Macedonica" and such.

Byzantium should have the event that allows reformation of the old Diocletianic army once you reconquer all the Levant, Egypt and Balkans (forming core ERE territory before Justinian). Theme system emerged only because of a desperate need to recruit more and more soldiers now that 3/4 of the empire and it's manpower resources were gone, and army was down from previously 300,000 to 26,000. If John I Tzimiskes and Basil II ever managed to reconquer Levant, Cyrenaica and Egypt, they would've reinstated the old system sooner or later.

Well, the Byzantine standing army was beginning to be rebuilt under the Isaurians, in the form of Tagmata regiments.
We do not know exactly how or why, but the old late roman armies ended up being part of the Themata (i.e. local levies, in game terms), after the crisis of the seventh century.

WSnova said:

You can use your retinues, divide them into stacks compromising of:

Center: Heavy Infantry
Flanks: Auxiliaries (mostly horse archers and archers)

Be amazed at the power of your 400 men.

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Yes, retinues are basically Roman Legions.

They are very close to late Roman Comitatenses field armies. The "traditional" legions of Rome had been gone for centuries, what the Comitatenses were was a highly mobile contingent that was kept away form the frontlines largely guarding the Emperor and responding to enemy threats when the Limitanei couldn't handle it (who are basically CK2 levies).

Lord Finnish said:

Yes, retinues are basically Roman Legions.

They are very close to late Roman Comitatenses field armies. The "traditional" legions of Rome had been gone for centuries, what the Comitatenses were was a highly mobile contingent that was kept away form the frontlines largely guarding the Emperor and responding to enemy threats when the Limitanei couldn't handle it (who are basically CK2 levies).

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Exactly. And what's good is that the usual strength of Comitatenses was 20,000, which is the ideal retinue army size for all purposes.

When RoI came out I used to create Comitatenses and positioned them a few duchies back from the frontline, in a major city. When my levies weren't enough, or assembled too slowly, or enemy was too fast and big, the Comitatenses in the area would be given the best commanders in the empire and then simply marched over the enemy.

Historically the real role for Comitatenses was to be the aggressive blitzing force and being stationed at the interior of the empire. If Limitanei was crushed by some powerful invasion, then the Comitatenses would mobilize, meet at a point and team up to defeat the enemy. And this turned out to be ineffective compared to the original Marian and Principate legions, who usually teamed up fast, marched out and massacred the enemy in question even before it reaches the borders of Rome.