How Hoplites carried their rations of food

[Strategos]

Hi all!
How did Hoplites in the field carried their food?
Was there some kind of a Haversack like in Roman times?
I was reading about Greek military food in this article (this one), and wondered because there is mentioned, that they used some sort of baskets (if I understood it correctly).
It would be interesting to me, if somebody could explain it to me or show me how it looked like.
Kind regards
Strategos

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Hi Strategos. Baskets were indeed used and are shown being carried by the servants.
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=22683
Here you'll find some interesting information. There was a kind o yoke that passed over one shoulder and was keeping the baggage in the back,while counterbalancing it with other stuff in a hook at the front,or with the hand. Baskets may had been hung from there.
Xenophon in the Anabasis went to the rear of the marching line to search for food in the carts,when some soldiers were collapsing in the side of the road,which means that in some cases food was being carried as a whole,but we can't know when and in what occasions.Because elsewhere in the Anabasis he mentions that some soldiers run out of food and where buying i from others,or the exchanged fire for food.
Khaire
Giannis

[Kineas]

Remember that no Greek army (at least before Alexander) had centralized supply. It appears to me that the commander (or even contingent commanders) arranged for a market to be opened near the army, and every man--or every mess--purchased for themselves. It is important to note that European armies still operated this way as late as 1780, and it works, and saves a great deal of logistical struggle, but breaks down utterly when you have to fight in hostile terrain, or a desert.

The point would be that if you can expect to buy your food every day, or every two days, you won't carry much.

Also worth noting that vase paintings are full of net bags, which are easily available today (or you can make your own). Hemp would be best. Net bags are great for produce and effective on live poultry (don't ask) and then stow away very easily for reuse. They're also easy to wash.

Further, a basket can be put INSIDE a net bag to be carried, or suspended from a yoke.
Finally, Hermes is often shown with a traveler's pouch or scrip or haversack, and there are a number of vase paintings of hunters and/or travelers with such a thing.

They wouldn't have had a standardized haversack, though. One thing that Classical hoplites were not is standardized. Not only are they not industrial, they aren't even really professional until fairly late--remember that most early hoplites would eat at home... or at most spend 2-3 nights in the field, or operate off ships when far from home, with their own logistics... anyway, I don't think that even Sparta has an existing "Ordinance of Arms", much less any other state--a set of standards for what a soldier "must" have.

[Kineas]

My Classical cookbook (oddly, I'm cooking a dish from this tonight--tuna steaks ala 5th C. BC) says that soldiers probably ate a fair amount of porridge. There's a porridge listed made with soft goat's cheese, barley, and wine that sounds quite edible.

Worth noting that, aside from mercenaries, most hoplites had servants--at least one per four, and often one per, as shield carriers. That would suggest that someone in a file (the most likely mess group) would have a cauldron or kettle, since you can't cook porridge or salt fish without a cauldron. I've now piled up about ten period illustrations of cauldrons, and they all seem to appear oval in cross section and most seem to have had a lid, most were bronze, and some had built in tripods (I wouldn't want to carry one of those on campaign).
A single two gallon cauldron will feed 10 men. We do it every weekend, in 1777....



Note the "ear" holes in the cauldron. it didn't always have a tripod... so it would have been suspended, possibly by a chain, from a wooden tripod (easy to build on site--takes about ten minutes) or a pair of tripods with a cross pole support.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Soldiers apear to have carried small pans and pots shown hunging with their baggage. I find it more likely that they were cooking by file or even more likely,they cooked with whomever they wanted for company.This especially in the earlier armies. I will second Kineas in that nothing was standardized in Greek armies,and few were even in later armies. But i think Strategos' original question was aiming to answer how hoplites carried their stuff and food. The yoke apears often enough carried by hoplite servants. Both in vases and sculpture. Now i think that each one would carry what he though practical...or better,what their wives thought practical. And baskets were among these things certainly. Their baggage looks like a cylinder made by a(usually line decorated) cloth wraping their stuff.
Khaire
Giannis

[spyros]

Have a look at this
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... light=mule

And good luck with your research