10-12-2021, 01:57 PM
I really didn't want to clutter up the stickied discussion with possible irrelevancies...
But it was pointed out that the quote that the soldiers "...carried their normal 17 days rations..." is a detail from the Historia Augusta.
Now, up until now, and supported by such things as Engel's '....Logistics of the Macedona Army' and studies of other soldiers and mules needs and carrying ability; I had been under the impression that something on the order of '3 days' was more normally carried. It even includes knowing what I used to carry when on infantry training!
But 17 days seems an enormous quantity of food and forage for, say, a standard legionary carriage, even supported by just their 'intimate support mules' (ie the idea of 1 per contubernia for tent pieces, stakes, entrenching tools - let alone it's own forage - and perhaps 1 or two more for the centuriae as a whole) - and not counting any other additional mules like detailed in that 'movement of a cohort' study (that I can't immediately detail....) that calculated 225 more mules just to resupply for an additional 3 days.
In short - 17 days food and fodder is an enormous weight. How could a soldier carry it - when he's always got some 60lbs of other things...?
But it was pointed out that the quote that the soldiers "...carried their normal 17 days rations..." is a detail from the Historia Augusta.
Now, up until now, and supported by such things as Engel's '....Logistics of the Macedona Army' and studies of other soldiers and mules needs and carrying ability; I had been under the impression that something on the order of '3 days' was more normally carried. It even includes knowing what I used to carry when on infantry training!
But 17 days seems an enormous quantity of food and forage for, say, a standard legionary carriage, even supported by just their 'intimate support mules' (ie the idea of 1 per contubernia for tent pieces, stakes, entrenching tools - let alone it's own forage - and perhaps 1 or two more for the centuriae as a whole) - and not counting any other additional mules like detailed in that 'movement of a cohort' study (that I can't immediately detail....) that calculated 225 more mules just to resupply for an additional 3 days.
In short - 17 days food and fodder is an enormous weight. How could a soldier carry it - when he's always got some 60lbs of other things...?
