01-26-2013, 07:51 PM
Quote:why sending them over Adriatic, when was much easy and normal to send them by sea over Mediterana, right in Syria or Egypt? Did they walk all over from Illyria to Macedonia to Egypt?
Large scale troop movement by sea was very rare - navigation was difficult or impossible for half the year anyway, and the risks were immense: just look at the trouble Caesar had conveying his army from Sicily to north Africa, a voyage of only a few days. A voyage to Syria could have taken weeks, and many vessels would have been lost or scattered on the way.
The usual way to send troops eastward was by land, precisely as Appian describes. A short sea crossing of the Adriatic from Brundisium, then a march across Macedonia by the via Egnatia and the Bosphorus and down through Asia. Roman armies took this route repeatedly. If Caesar wanted an army in Syria ready for the campaigning season of 44BC, sending them by the land route early in the year would have them in place when they were needed.
So, if we have sixteen legions 'sent on ahead', and six later based in Macedonia, it seems clear that the remaining ten were marched straight down to the eastern front in preparation for the Parthian war, and the six in Macedonia were kept back for the campaign against the Getae.
Nathan Ross
