Re: [RC] Ancient Greeks & Romans - Ed & Wendy Hauser
"...Maybe they wore lightweight
armor..."
Since my last post I did some checking.
First, the Roman "Mile" is only about 4800 feet so Julius Caesar's 25 mile
march, 3 hours rest, and 25 mile return march was only about 23 miles each
way. During training they did do forced marches of greater than 25 (Roman)
miles. Usually, a days march was 15 miles. But remember they had to
break camp in the morning, and set up camp at night. Setting up camp
included "digging in" and planting the sharpened stakes for defense. The
source said that the estimate is that they carried 60-80 lbs on the march.
The reason the Romans dominated Europe for 1500
years (don't forget the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453) was that they
had extremely well trained and organized military.
To make this endurance related, they had extremely
good cavalry. They imported desert horses (Akel Tekes??) to improve their
own stock. Ann Hyland has written a great book "Training the Roman
Cavalry" The Roman cavalry's limitation was that the stirrup had not
been yet come into use.
I also have her book "the Medieval War Horse, From
Byzantium to the Crusades" This is also a must read for horse
persons. I have not yet read a third book: "Equus: The Horse in the Roman
World"
Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
