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Roman legionary feats of fitness
#31
Ha, recently by coincidence I have found at least one example of equal non-Roman feats. I cannot resist to post it here.

Reading Duncan Heads AotMaPW (one of the best books I ever bought) I came to the battle of Pisidia 320 BC. Antigonos Monophthalmos marched to this battle against Alketas with an army of about 47000 for seven days and 40 miles a day. Try to repeat this, you...Romans. :wink:

Unfortunately I don't own Diodoros myself (too expensive) and cannot go to the library, so I can not check the distance of the march, because D. Head tells not the starting point. D. Head cites Diodoros XVIII, 44-46.

If a big army could do this march, than the 7000 Romans could do their march too, I fear. So I have to dismiss my doubts. Big Grin
Wolfgang Zeiler
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#32
HA, thats nothing........What about the cotaburnia that endured a whole day filming for theBBC!??? Now that is superhuman endurance!!!! :lol:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#33
Well spotted Geala! So a Hellenistic Army can rival our Republican Romans in stamina and marching skills ! Smile
Quote:Reading Duncan Heads AotMaPW (one of the best books I ever bought) I came to the battle of Pisidia 320 BC. Antigonos Monophthalmos marched to this battle against Alketas with an army of about 47000 for seven days and 40 miles a day. Try to repeat this, you...Romans.
Have to agree with you - Duncan's book is an absolute model of how the subject should be treated, and is absolutely jam-packed with information of all sorts.
Errr.... look at posts above to see Romans averaging 40 miles a day for 7 days !! :wink: :wink:
The relevant part of Diodorus says ; "Making a forced march that strained the endurance of his men to the utmost, he traversed 2,500 stades(285 miles, 457 km ) in seven days and the same number of nights, reaching Cretopolis as it is called." This gives an average of a little over 40 miles, 65 km per day, and was evidently considered sufficiently noteworthy that the distance was recorded, like Nero's march.
Bearing in mind earlier comments, showing how the larger the size of the army, the longer it takes the 'tail' to complete the march, this feat is all the more outstanding !
This took place in Lycia, the area of the southern coast of Turkey opposite the Dodecanese islands and Rhodes. The exact location of Cretopolis ( the city of the Cretans) is unknown, but was probably a Cretan colony along the coast, and the march probably took place (like Nero's) along the coast (inland are rugged hills up to 3,000 ft,1,000 m high)
Once again, Antigonas' army fought a battle at the end of their march !!
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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