March rates for armies

[Aryaman2]

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?

[Paullus Scipio]

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

[Aryaman2]

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.

[Tarbicus]

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... p+vegetius

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... p+vegetius

It possibly depends on the time of year as well.

[Aryaman2]

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

[SMC]

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.

[Sean Manning]

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.