Roman Military Tents Carried in sections by the Men

[Andrew Jackson]

One of the main problems with the idea of a composite tent is the question how to assemble it properly.

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It might be possible to lash the components together - but then how do you keep it watertight ?

Are you familiar with 20th century British Army tents? They're also used a lot by scouts and other groups (and probably other armies).

They are commonly modular: I put one up recently that had two ends and as many middle sections as you liked (about 5-6' per section). Those sections included the roof and the walls in one piece, but I have used others that have the roof and the walls separately.

The lashing system is common to an awful lot of different tent designs - ridge, bell and frame. Essentially you have one edge with eyelets along it, and the other has loops of rope. Each loop is just the right length to go through one eyelet and run along the edge of the canvas to the next; the next loop goes through its eyelet and the previous loop; and so on to the end of the seam. When you're familiar with it (ie after about 2 minutes) it's very quick to put together and quicker to undo, requires no knots which can get jammed (especially in the rain), and provides a solid join (the two bits of canvas overlap each other).

In some ways it can be faster than dealing with single-piece tents, as the unfolding of smaller pieces is much simpler, and there's not so much standing around trying to work out whether the tent is inside out, sideways or back to front, and then having four people try to correct it in different ways simultaneously.

As far as mobility goes: if a tent is 45 pounds, that is too much for a single man to carry in one go and so the tent needs the mule. If it is split into 8 six-pound bundles (say, 2 roof, 4 side walls, 2 end walls) then it can still be carried by the mule, but it can also be split among the contubernium if required. That provides some flexibility and therefore more mobility. What do you do if your mule dies, or goes lame, when you have a 45 pound lump of leather to carry? Good luck getting the quarterbloke to issue you another mule without the appropriate dockets, and I'm glad I'm not the one struggling along with that through the rain.

Normal caveats apply of course: "could have done it" isn't the same as "did it", etc etc.

Cheers,

Andrew