For an able bodied person walking through a shopping mall, three miles an hour is perfectly healthy and reasonable. The Roman military manual is precise in how far, how much kit they carry and the pace of a centurian.
Remember this is a minimum distance, moving a lot of people. What happens bumping up the distances up to say km per day?
I've tried this. It's brutal. I did this to train for a km march in 9 days last year. Of the 20 that started only 3 finished without injury, including myself. This is way beyond the ability of most ordinary people. Even 10km with no carry weight. I have a lot of data points. In fact the only regular people I see are other runners.
This is of course anecdotal. But the figures for the weight of Australians isn't. At the moment it's 10K steps per day. Hence the reason I'm so active. You can exert yourself just as much in a much shorter distance and time.
Wow that's amazing, thanks. Soldiers would march all day, then set up camp, including building defenses like ditches and palisades, as well as pitching their tents and making latrines.
Legions would often march in a regimented order, with cavalry flanking the column and a rearguard to defend the soldiers, as well as their equipment, baggage trains, animals, and slaves. Roman soldiers would typically be given a day to recover every three or four days. Learning to march was an important part of training for legionaries in ancient Rome, with recruits expected to march 20 Roman miles around Standards would vary over time and between Romans and there are stories of much faster paces, such as Scipio potentially marching a rather unlikely 45 miles per day with his forces.
One can also assume that, while there may have been legions that kept a faster pace, there would have been those that may have been slower too. The Romans were not only renowned for their military prowess but also for their efficient infrastructure and constructions, helping to connect their large empire. The empire was connected by a large transportation network of roads, bridges, canals, and sea routes, allowing both the effective flow of trade and the military.
On a properly made road that was firm and flat enough for the supply waggons, it would be possible to make 30 miles in a day, but this was rarely the case as such roads would often run over hills and get covered in mud. The main factor to an armies travel speed were the animals, which required significantly more food than the troops did. A horse can easily eat 5 kg of grain a day which takes up a huge amount of room on the waggons, especially if cavalry is in the army. During the s, the British army would march at a steady speed of 2 mph for 10 hours a day, but this slow overall speed would compensate for a few rests and food would be brought for the animals to remove the need to graze them.
Even though the average is 20 miles a day, there are many factors that can massively change this. The landscape would obviously be the biggest factor, as a mountain range would be much slower to pass than a flat paved road, but two other important factors would be supplies and desperation. This water wagon would have been similar to the ones used during the medieval period.
In the late s, various colonial forces from Europe invaded Zulu territory and encountered an enemy unlike any other they had faced. One of the scariest things about this enemy is how fast they were, with the British only managing to cover 20 miles a day at the most in the hot desert sun and barren landscape, but the Zulus could travel up to 50 miles in a single day.
There is a comprehensive model that was created by Stanford to model how long travel took in Roman times, since you are interested in Military be sure to set your options correctly, under Mode Foot be sure to select Rapid Military March or Ox-Cart or whatever depending on the armies method of travel, also Select River and change to Military.
This model allows for so many variables including type of march, season of march, method of transport. It will give you a very good approximation of the travel time from different cities in the Empire. John Harrel in "The Nisibis War" uses an estimate of 10 miles per day -- roughly 16km a day -- for "normal" conditions. They could go faster, at the cost of exhaustion or a less well-developed camp, or they could go slower, if conditions like heat or terrain forced them. One of the interesting facts is that a large enough force would have the vanguard and scouts setting up the next camp before the rear guard left the previous camp!
The question is how quickly could Roman legions move? Well a single soldier in the modern U. S army is required to complete a Loaded March, carrying weight of up to 70 pounds, of 12 miles in less than 3 hours to attain an Expert Infantryman Badge. The 'Raid March' practised by the French Foreign Legion requires a march of 75 miles in 3 days in full combat gear carrying rifle and 70 pounds of gear. A Full Pace march for a Roman Legionary in basic training required a march in daylight hours of 22 miles.
Clearly it is entirely possible a Roman Legion could march miles per day if needed. It is well documented Roman soldiers never stopped training during their 25 year service and it may well be a mistake to underestimate the fitness and endurance of a Roman soldier compared to that of a modern soldier especially given the only mode of troop movement available to a Roman foot soldier was the march.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?
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