minimum of 24,000 based on the assumption that "the Romans had... four legions – for each consul had two legions under his command – and given that each legion had 6,000 men". He also thinks that there may have been a contingent of allied troops. He thinks that the "Senones' tribal army could scarcely number more than 12,000". The figures given by ancient historians for the size of the Roman army engaged in the battle are unlikely since they are notorious for exaggerating figures. Contrary to Berresford Ellis's assertion, the Romans then had only two legions. The number of legions was not increased to four until later in the century, during the Second Samnite War (326-304 BC), and the first record of four legions occurred in 311 BC. The Romans then also had additional military commanders: the praetor, who had been instituted in 366 BC, and the proconsul, who was a consul who received an extension of his term of military command (the practice started in 327 BC). The first historical hints of the consuls leading more than one legion were for 299 BC (during a war with the Etruscans) and 297 BC, during the Third Samnite War (298-290 BC). The first explicit mention of a consul with two legions is in 296 BC. In 295 BC, the Romans deployed six legions; four led by the two consuls, and fought a coalition of four peoples (the Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians and Senone Gauls) in the huge Battle of Sentinum. Two were led to another front by a praetor. The battle of the Allia took place in the early days of Rome when the Roman army was much smaller and its command structure was much simpler. The Roman army had only two legions, and the two consuls were the sole military commanders, each heading one legion. In addition, the battle occurred in the early history of the Roman Republic, while the consulship alternated with years in which Rome was headed by military tribunes with consular power, often referred to as consular tribunes instead, and 390 BC was a year in which six consular tribunes were in charge. Therefore, Berresford Ellis's assertion that the Romans at the battle of Allia had four legions, two for each of the two consuls, is doubly anachronistic. Moreover, the Roman legions had 6,000 men on only a few exceptional occasions. In the early days of the Republic,