04-21-2011, 07:59 PM
One problem with reenacting is that centurions don't get to beat the soldiers with sticks for being lazy. Real Roman centurions could do that and no doubt it helped enormously to make the soldiers see the virtue of digging and hauling dirt. Also, there was always the shining example of the commander Glabrio, who didn't fortify his camp at the base of Mt. Vesuvius and got wiped out by Spartacus in a night attack. Moral: Don't fortify and a rabble of slaves can wipe you out.
Here's something I haven't seen addressed: Is there any evidence that Roman armies on the march could round up local labor to help with the heavy, unskilled work? If that advance party could get a few thousand peasants working while the rest were catching up, it would speed things up quite a bit, especially in heavily populated places like Syria and Egypt. We've all seen those old films of huge engineering projects in India, mostly carried out with long lines of skinny guys schlepping baskets of dirt.
Here's something I haven't seen addressed: Is there any evidence that Roman armies on the march could round up local labor to help with the heavy, unskilled work? If that advance party could get a few thousand peasants working while the rest were catching up, it would speed things up quite a bit, especially in heavily populated places like Syria and Egypt. We've all seen those old films of huge engineering projects in India, mostly carried out with long lines of skinny guys schlepping baskets of dirt.
