Logistics Roman Army

[arklore70]

Hi all, do we have any writings or even modern books other than Roth's on logistics for the Roman Army for any period, and for that matter, anything even of later period?

I am just trying to get my hands around how the Romans were actually able to maintain such large fielded forces.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!!

[Marja]

Engels' work obviously doesn't cover the Roman army, but many of the considerations and constraints will apply.

Kehne has a short chapter on logistics in Erdkamp's A Companion to the Roman Army.

[Alexandr K]

Hello,

Here are some other books on logistics I know about:

Erdkamp, P.P.M., 1998. Hunger and the Sword: Warfare and food supply in Roman Republican wars (264-30 B.C.), Amsterdam.

Junkelmann, M., 1997. Panis Militaris: Die Ernährung des römischen Soldaten oder der Grundstoff der Macht, Mainz.


Labisch, A., 1975. Frumentum Commeatusque: Die Nahrungsmittelversorgung der Heere Caesars, Meisenheim am Glan.

IIRC, there was an article by Peter Kehne, which summarised the most important works on logistics by that time:

Kehne, P., 2004. Zur Logistik des römischen Heeres von der mittleren Republik bis zum Ende der hohen Kaiserzeit (241 v. Chr. - 235 n. Chr.): Forschungen und Tendenzen. Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, 63, pp.115–151.

I'll try to have a look and perhaps provide more publications of interest, when I have a little bit more time.

Greetings,
Alexandr

[John1]

On the Trail of the Legions by Raymond Selkirk

[arklore70]

Ahh, this is very good and gives me something to dig into further.

[PhilusEstilius]

I am pleased that John has mentioned On The Trail of The Legions by Raymond Selkirk for it was indeed a subject that Raymond was not only interested in but proved that the Romans supplied their establishments by waterways.

Where he mentioned that the Dere Street went through Bywell and not Corbridge he also discovered that there is part of a Roman Dam still intact on the river Tyne at Bywell with its pound lock and sluice gate. The Roman bridge piers were still intact up to almost the mid 19th century as was a wier however who has ever heard of a wier with a ten feet vertical drop to it, (it was indeed the Roman Dam )
Here are pictures that show the bridge piers with the dam upstream of the bridge which was good waterway engineering where the dam takes the water pressure off the bridge.

There is also a picture of the Dam's wood inner structure after it had been destroyed by a large quantity of Ice that came down the Tyne on February 18th 1740 causing a tremendous amount of damage the Mill on the north bank was no longer in use and after another century the dam structure was blown up with dynamite as were the bridge piers one of which can be seen down stream of the dam. The pound lock with its sluice is still there today amongst the trees to the left of the first picture on the south bank of the river.
[attachment=5210]SEBywellTyne121Small.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=5211]SEBywellCas1Small.jpg[/attachment]

[mcbishop]

On the Trail of the Legions by Raymond Selkirk

Selkirk's work should be read in tandem with Jim Anderson's BAR (224) Roman Military Supply in North-east England: An Analysis of and an Alternative to the Piercebridge Formula for balance. Both have interesting ideas.

Mike Bishop

[Vindex]

It also depends on what you consider the definition of logistics to be. The modern definition of "combat supplies" or the more traditional view of everything it took to keep an army supplied in the field and in barracks. The two environments can of course be considerably different.

Any papers by Roy Davies on the matter are valuable (supply of animals and military diet) as are some by Sue Stallibrass (provision of animals).