Furca

[Carlton Bach]

Our spanish legio VIIII Hispana reproduces the legion from the 50 BC to the 0 BC (ending republic, starting empire) one of the moment of highest expansion and movements of the roman army. Our legion fits better with the firts model, the second are more close to the late imperial army not to the early principate.

You're right, that would be the period when the image of a soldier 'carrying his life's possessions on his back' actually comes closest to reality.

most professional soldiers I've met tend to live 'lighter' than civilians because they can always find out at a few weeks' notice that their new home is in Aviano, Landstuhl, Anchorage, Fort Benning or Okinawa. Nonetheless, they have something similar to a household and personal possessions.

In a world with trains and plains we can return to home from another countries in hours, with the cellular phones we can take care of our homes in any part of the world in real time and the modern wars for the modern profesional Army (F.E the US ARMY) last weeks or mounths and the soldiers will be replaced in a fixed period. But in the ancient the travels tooks weeks or mounths walking or riding similar to the postal system and the campaign last for years or decades. In the roman army you can´t know when you can retourn home or make plans for the future because you can´t know when your unity will move in campaign: you can´t have a personal household because you aren´t secure for how much time you can have it... and the legionaries were forced to sleep in the camp until Septimus Severus.

That last point I would question,. De-facto marriage and postings outside camp are known well before the Severan period, and given the prevailing corruption in the army, all manner of arrangements must have been possible. But of course all of this would come with the development of 'fixed' bases and camps, well after the age of Augustus.

An example, my legio, the legio VIIII Hispana in our reenactment period:

44 BC: Refounding , take part in the battle of Mutina

42 BC: Take part in the battle of Philippi

42 BC - 32 BC: Garrison

That's ten years right there! I realise we have no way of knowing what the living arrangements actually were like, but I find it hard to envision a fighting force like that, under the patronage of powerful men and not composed of men with much regard for the finer points of property, would not accumulate things and create a measure of home comforts.

32 BC: Take part in the battle of Actium

29 BC - 28 BC: Campaign in the lower Danube against Scytians

28 BC - 25 BC: Pacification operations in Aquitania

25 BC - 19 BC: Cantabrian Wars

19 BC - 16 BC: Transfered to north Italy

16 BC repel the invasions of the Panonians with the legio XX

16 BC - 12 BC: Garrison in Illyrcum

Again four years (and I don't know what Aquitanian operations were like in terms of winter quarters and garrison duties).

12 BC - 11 BC: Panonian campaign

11 BC - 14 AC: Garrison in the Danube

And another three years. This is actually a long time. I haven't been living in my current apartment for longer than that, and the place is plenty cluttered up. I think it has something to do with the 'time compression effect' in ancient history. 44BC to 27 BC doesn't 'feel' as long as 1918 to 1933, and short time spans tend to be shrugged off entirely. For a legionary on duty, four years is a long time in the same place.

I think so but I don´t have any historical evidence, I think that the officials didn´t allow the using of the "impedimenta" (baggage train of the legion) as personal effects transport because a legion have to carry too much

I wonder about that. When you read about centurions collecting 'leave money' and soldiers shaking down locals... I'm sure there were ways.

No evidence for leather bottles (other than satsobek's painting), but waterskins were found in Isarael, dating to Roman times. T

I was talking about the waterskins, sorry for my bad english

They were quite common throughout the ancient world and I can't imagine why soldiers wouldn't use them.

Why do you say that? The waterskins are flexible and ligth, is a god form to transport water or posca.

That was my point - no reason not to use them - except it's a bit inconsiderate towards archeologists, given how badly they survive. MOst waterskins are fairly large, though. I wonder if they came in 'one-person sizes'

I ear this argument about the use of potery as individual waterbottles in the roman army. The pottery was comon in the ancient times (was really comon but think that you have to equip 5000 mens with pottery) but it is fragile: it breaks easily and you lost the water and where is no water there is no pottery. The waterbottles in a marching army servers not to transport water from the point A to B but to have water to drink in the travel from A to B; if your waterbottle of pottery falls in march, it breaks and you lost the water and you will be thirsty all the journy and in the end you can´t know if you will have water. Another reasons agains the use of the pottery as water container in the roman army march if the pottery will extended used we could reconstruct the ancient marchs of the legions following the tracks of broken pottery.

Broken pottery is one of our best indicators for Roman presence, isn't it? But how often does a pottery bottle or gourd actually break? I've been to a fair few medieval events, and I think we averaged less than one broken item per event. The stuff isn't that fragile, and the ancient world was used to lugging it around. I can't see why Roman soldiers wouldn't. Though personally I'd prefer a gourd or waterskin.