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Hi
Polybius 3.50.1 says Hannibal army marched 800 stades in 10 days, that is about 14 Kms a day, anyone know another examples of march rates for the period?
AKA Inaki
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There was considerable discussion of march rates, ancient and modern, especially extreme ones, on the
"Legionary Feats of Fitness" thread, including several Punic War ones.....
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... &highlight
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Paul McDonnell-Staff
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Thanks for the link, however I was looking more for averag march rates, any idea? 15-20 Kms a day is usually given for Napoleonic period armies.
AKA Inaki
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TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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Yes, what I was looking for is a standard distance to work on so that it could be modified up or down by additional factors
AKA Inaki
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Engel's book, Alexander the Great and the Logisitics of the Macedonian Army devotes quite a bit of text of this topic and it is almost certainl applicable for any pre-industrial armies.
Stephen McCotter
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Rhoads Murphy's Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 also has lots of good figures. The Ottomans managed to break some of the usual rules, like being able to muster 50,000 horse at the start of a campaign and mobilize half or more of their army for an annual campaign. But when their major armies were on the march they made the same 12-15 miles per day of marching (not rest, halt for bridge-building, etc.) that other good armies did.
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