They
counted double paces, ie rt foot to rt foot. LL
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Truman
Prevatt Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 11:24 PM To: Ed &
Wendy Hauser Cc: WRSINOSKY@xxxxxxx;
ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] Ancient Greeks &
Romans
But if their mile was measured by 1000 paces, it
was only about a kilometer since I don't know anyone with a stride of much
more than a meter. A kilo meter is about 6/10's of a mile which would put
their 25 miles at 15 mles and thier 23 miles at 13.8 miles.
Truman
Ed & Wendy Hauser wrote:
"...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
