food intake

[Bran ap Maclou]

Hi,

I submit to your sagacity something which stay an enigma to me. Do we know the precise amount of the food intakes of roman soldiers.

I wonder as an exemple how much gramm of salt represent the salarium of soldiers.
What about wheat, lentil, hick-pea or else ?

Thank you

Bye

Greg

[Carlton Bach]

The short answer is, no.

The long answer is a bit more complicated. Basically, we can judge a kind of 'baseline' food intake for the Principate era.

We don't actually know the exact grain rations the military gave out, but a good estimate lies at around a kilogram of wheat (this is based on figures from Polybius on monthly rations and late antique bread receipts). That was the basic and under wartime conditions probably often the only food they got, their sitos, in contemporary terms.

How much was it worth? Not easy to say. The price for a modius of wheat (about 7.5 kg) lay between 0.5 and 1 denarius in Augustan times. A modius would represent a week's food. The common soldier received annual pay of 225 denarii, so assuming he had his food supply docked at market rates, he'd have had to pay between over a tenth and a bit under a quarter of his take for his daily bread. It is all but impossible to say how realistic this consideration is, but it compares favourably with Early Modern examples.

The other foods are even more uncertain. We don't know how much (if anything) other than grain soldiers received as issue. It is likely that oil, wine, meat, cheese, vegetables, fish and other opson were issued as and when available. A Late Antique papyrus records 2 Roman pounds of meat, about a litre of wine and a third of a cup of oil, but this may well reflect later practice. Other foodstuffs could, of course, also be bought.

Now, a kilo of bread and a generous pound-and-a-half of meat, with oil and wine to accompany it, makes a very ample ration even for an active man. We can assume that the Roman soldier was normally well fed. Junkelmann estimates the caloric value of the grain ration alone at at a little under 3000 calories.

As to how much the pay of the soldier would have bought in terms of food, that is all but impossible to say with certainty. We do not know how much of his pay a soldier actually received, are not always certain how much it was supposed to be to start with, are in the dark on the matter of normal food prices and regional fluctuations except for a few glimpses, and do not know how much the troops would augment their rations through extortion, theft, or labour paid in kind. We have papyrus letters in which soldiers beg to be sent food by relatives, and we have descriptions of troops living off the fat of the land.

Altogether, though, the evidence to me suggests that soldiers enjoyed a good and varied food intake and had the opportunity to buy, barter or otherwise acquire extra.

[Bran ap Maclou]

Thank you for your answer, I will try to look in the Diocletian law.


Bye,

Greg