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Roman soldiers strong - SAJID - 03-14-2018
Hi,to all,
How roman soldiers were maintain their self strong while they wear to used heavy body armor during battle fields?
with best regards-sajid
RE: Roman soldiers strong - Crispianus - 03-14-2018
(03-14-2018, 03:44 PM)SAJID Wrote: Hi,to all,
How roman soldiers were maintain their self strong while they wear to used heavy body armor during battle fields?
with best regards-sajid
Hi Sajid, Roman soldiers were usually kept very busy during peace time often doing some kind of manual labour such as Civic works, building fortifications etc... sports and regular military training would also add to that...
RE: Roman soldiers strong - A_Volpe - 03-15-2018
Vegetius mentions how soldiers ought to be kept physically active, mentioning the twice-a-day training regimen, including fencing and occasional route marches as well as other things like being able to swim, crossing a river ( piling armor into the shield and carrying it overhead); and the famous quote attributed to him that “bored soldiers are mutinous soldiers”
If I remember correctly, there was an incident in the time of Caracalla where he was enraged at the “laziness” of an Eastern-based Legion, and forced them to route march up a mountain, to get them back into shape.
Earlier, Josephus also mentions a regular training/drilling regimen
There are a few examples of frescoes and mosaic artwork showing various “ball games”, and with having to walk everywhere, soldiers would have that “benefit” as a regular exercise.
As for wearing the armor and marching pack, etc. Well, there is little evidence to support that the Romans wore their armor all day, every day in the first place. They seemed to have worn the armor when they were route marching or actively going into combat.
There seems to be some evidence (Polybius, Josephus, Vegetius) that allude to [Romans] in combat taking short ‘breaks’, as well as the line-rotation/countermarch to relieve 1st-line troops - There are mentions of ‘lulls’ in battles, very rarely it seems from surviving writings, that battles go on for hours on end. None of that Hollywood “last man standing” stuff.
For us today, we may be making our replica armor too heavy, assuming that the metal has to be “so” thick and rugged to resist weapons wielded with super-human strength. We also may be wearing the armor for “too” long; I try to wear the armor for only an hour or two with a break. Even professional Athletes wear their equipment for about 2-3 hours at any stretch.