The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

Tools of Wa r 221
down to 5,000 men, would require the produce of 70 acres in one week, or putting
it another way, 10 acres a day.
Roth (1999) assumes that the same ra ti on scales for grain or bre ad app ly
equally to legionaries and auxiliaries, and points out that the amount of bread
allowed for soldiers did not vary over seven centuries: Polybius (6.39) sets the
f i g u re at 3 pounds per day du ring the Rep u bl i c , and the ra ti on for the sixthcen
tu ry Roman army was the same. Ap a rt from gra i n , the arch aeo l ogical and
l i tera ry sources reveal that the Roman soldiers ate meat, m o s t ly pork . Du ri n g
the Rep u bl i c , salt pork was ex ported from It a ly to campaign armies overs e a s
(Polybius 2.15.2–3). Like other soldiers of all periods, the Romans ate any other
meat that they could find by requ i s i ti on or by hu n ti n g. Bones from military
sites show that beef and mutton formed part of the diet, and Lucullus’s army in
the campaign against Mithradates ate venison and hare. Lentils and beans are
also attested, along with cheese (caseus), salt, vinegar, and sour wine (acetum),
which was mixed with water to form a drink known as posca. Vintage wine was
not unknown but was usually watered down, and in the Celtic provinces of the
west, soldiers also drank beer (cervesa). The search for water for soldiers and animals
would be a constant need, and in some cases water had to be carried in
skins (utres). When he was besieging a desert town in Africa in 107 bc Marius
tra n s ported skins of w a ter by pack tra i n s , and Pom pey re s orted to the same
technique in the Mithradatic War, using pack animals to carry 10,000 skins of
water (Roth, 1999). Where it was possible, liquids were probably transported in
barrels. One of the scenes at the base of Trajan’s Column shows barrels being
unloaded from a ship, but it is not possible to discern what they contained.
Horses and pack animals required different amounts of dry fodder such as
b a rl ey and oa t s , and green fod der su ch as gra s s , cl over, and vetch . Horses requ
i red the most food and were fussier eaters than mules and don keys , wh i ch
can survive on smaller quantities and worse quality foods; oxen were easier still
to feed since their digestive systems allow them to extract more sustenance from
the foods they eat. However, many authors have wrestled with the conundrum
that the more pack animals the army takes on campaign , the more food the
pack animals need. Therefore, the more food has to be carried or found on the
march. When they are working hard, horses strictly need increased rations, but
on campaign they would not necessarily receive the recommended amounts or
even the correct kinds of food. Caesar’s troops fed their horses on seaweed in
the Af rican campaign (Af rican Wa r 2 4 ) , but this was not su ch an out l a n d i s h
idea since seaweed supplements are given to horses in modern times.
Th ere are scant referen ces to fod der in the ancient source s . According to
Po lybius (6.39.12–14), a Roman cava l ry soldier of the Rep u blic received 7 m edimni
of b a rl ey per month for his hors e , while an all i ed cava l ryman received on ly
5 m ed i m n i ( Di xon and So ut h ern , 1 9 9 2 ) . It has been esti m a ted that since the cava
l rym en were ex pected to maintain three hors e s , the ra ti ons must have been di-