08-13-2009, 01:36 PM
I may have answered my own question.
"The precise contents and weight of Roman military sarcina are hard to determine. Weight estimates range widely from a low of 30 lbs. to a high of nearly 100. The high estimate, 90 to 100 lbs., was probably two-thirds of an average soldier's body weight in the case of shorter Italian man, and seems unrealistic, though some modern authors have expressed confidence. On a more realistic scale, estimates range from 48 lbs. to 43 lbs. (60 Roman pounds) stated by Vegetius, excluding armor and weapons, to 30 lbs." Sara Elise Phang in Roman Military Service: Ideology and Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (Cambridge, 2008), p. 217.
Phang goes on to list and discuss the probable inventory as well as notable variations, such as Julius Ceasar's expediti.
"The precise contents and weight of Roman military sarcina are hard to determine. Weight estimates range widely from a low of 30 lbs. to a high of nearly 100. The high estimate, 90 to 100 lbs., was probably two-thirds of an average soldier's body weight in the case of shorter Italian man, and seems unrealistic, though some modern authors have expressed confidence. On a more realistic scale, estimates range from 48 lbs. to 43 lbs. (60 Roman pounds) stated by Vegetius, excluding armor and weapons, to 30 lbs." Sara Elise Phang in Roman Military Service: Ideology and Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (Cambridge, 2008), p. 217.
Phang goes on to list and discuss the probable inventory as well as notable variations, such as Julius Ceasar's expediti.
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil
Ron Andrea
Ron Andrea
