The Late Roman Army

[tlclark]

The system of a chain of supply depots in the route of an army was, as far as I know, the exception, not the rule, in medieval times. I know the English kings did that in the Scottish campaigns, and to some extent in the 100 years war, but I can think of very few other examples. The rule is that medieval knights ideally were expected to carry at least 3 horses with them.

A lot of this is regional. Every part of the British Isles has a long history of hating every other part of the British Isles. Where the loyalty or feudal system breaks down the system breaks down and then we have people like Edward, massing huge conventional armies for assaults in Wales where there were no friendlies.

In France it worked far more consistently, though there were always breakdowns/divided loyalties, etc.

The system you are talking about was instead fully developed in Western Europe in the XVI and early XVII century, the problem with that system is that it only provides supply in friendly areas. Besides I have never heard of that a system used either by the Parthians or by the Sassanians, do you have any source on that?

Groan. Ok, I gotta go back to my notes from years back and see what my prof said on this. I don't know if there are any literary sources but the number of so-called 'caravansarai' is enormous. There is a tendency to label every fort a 'trading post' when in reality they were forts for such a supply chain.