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How far could the legions travel in a day
#31
I just wanted to say that I think this is a great thread, with an interesting mix of information from ancient times as well as current practices.

I would note:

Quote:Tacitus (or was it Iosephus Flavius? - I'm far away from my books) wrote, that the "standard" distance for a legionaire was 20,000 steps/day, so maybe having a "counter" slave is not a bad idea.

that 20,000 steps a day, at my stride of 2.7 feet, is only a little over 10 miles per day (current). I am 5'11" tall (180cm) so I think it's unlikely the typical legionaire's stride is much if at all longer than mine. Is it possible that 'steps', in this case, meant double steps, ie, a full 'left-right'?

rkmvca/Rich Klein
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#32
Thanks for doing the maths. Very interesting.

Quote:I just wanted to say that I think this is a great thread, with an interesting mix of information from ancient times as well as current practices.

I would note:

Quote:Tacitus (or was it Iosephus Flavius? - I'm far away from my books) wrote, that the "standard" distance for a legionaire was 20,000 steps/day, so maybe having a "counter" slave is not a bad idea.

that 20,000 steps a day, at my stride of 2.7 feet, is only a little over 10 miles per day (current). I am 5'11" tall (180cm) so I think it's unlikely the typical legionaire's stride is much if at all longer than mine. Is it possible that 'steps', in this case, meant double steps, ie, a full 'left-right'?

rkmvca/Rich Klein
~ Paul Elliott

The Last Legionary
This book details the lives of Late Roman legionaries garrisoned in Britain in 400AD. It covers everything from battle to rations, camp duties to clothing.
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#33
Another possibility is that we are not separating the concepts of routine march from forced march. A march of 10 miles was considered a fair day's progress in the 18th century. For a legion which was undergoing, say, a non-emergency transfer from one region to another, a regular pace of 10 miles a day might be thought a good thing. It would not stress either the men or the draft animals, and straggling would be minimal.

That isn't much of a pace by the modern standards various people have posted; but since WW II most armies haven't moved large units with draft animals any signifcant distance on foot: say, 5000 men and a few hundred beasts going 300 miles. If the movement is routine, then wastage of men and beasts becomes an issue for the military clerks. If there is a reason to hurry, of course, then the wastage becomes a necessity, and faster speeds could certainly be justified.
Felix Wang
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#34
Quote:that 20,000 steps a day, at my stride of 2.7 feet, is only a little over 10 miles per day (current). I am 5'11" tall (180cm) so I think it's unlikely the typical legionaire's stride is much if at all longer than mine. Is it possible that 'steps', in this case, meant double steps, ie, a full 'left-right'?

Right, the Roman pace or "passus" was 2 steps, total length of about 5 feet. Hence the "mile" is from "millia passus" or 1000 paces, 5000 feet.

Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
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#35
Makes perfect sense. And of course that means that Tacitus' (or Iosephus') "standard distance" would have been 20 Roman miles per day, which lines up with all the other ancient and modern evidence we have in this thread as being a good day's walk for a loaded infantryman.

Thanks.

rkmvca/Rich Klein
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