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The Roman Military Diet*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

R. W. Davies
R. W. Davies
Affiliation:
College of Education, Sunderland
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Extract

The axiom ‘an army marches on its stomach’ applies to all armies of all times. The task of providing a constant and sufficient supply of food was by no means the least important part of the work involved in the day to day running of the Roman army. In time of war the troops would forage from enemy countryside, requisition supplies from defeated tribes or towns, and receive them from allies. According to Josephus the legionaries carried with them as part of their equipment sickles to reap the crops and also rations for three days. A scene on Trajan's Column depicts the legionaries carrying their kit on a stake; this consisted in part of a string-bag for forage, a metal cooking-pot and a mess-tin, examples of which have been discovered in most parts of the Empire. When an army was not on active service, the arrangements to supply food for men and animals were extensive and complex.

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Articles
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Britannia , Volume 2 , November 1971 , pp. 122 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © R. W. Davies 1971. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

The evidence collected in this paper is not meant to be exhaustive, but is a representative selection. The period under study is that of the Principate. The evidence for the consumption of meat in the armies of the Later Republic, Caesar, and Early Principate is studied in detail in an appendix. The evidence for items provided mainly or exclusively for fodder is not here studied, but may on occasion be mentioned in passing. Some of the analyses were made fifty or even one hundred years ago; consequently, more modern methods and further excavation provide a better picture. Some of the analyses were restricted; thus oyster and mussel shells and chicken bones are often not mentioned, because the analysis was concerned exclusively with animal bones, but they are frequently found, as, for example, at Corbridge. Part I of the analysis of the Corbridge bones by Meek and Gray was published in 1911; Part II has never been published. Some earlier studies will be found in: J. Lesquier, L'armée romaine d'Égypte d'Auguste à Dioclétien (1918) 347–68; R. Cagnat, L'armée romaine d'Afrique et l'occupation militaire de l'Afrique sous les empereurs (second edition, 1913) 311–26; both authors at times use passages of the SHA, for which nowadays more care is required. For the Later Roman Empire, see: D. van Berchem, L'annone militaire dans l'empire romain au IIIéme siécle (1937); A. H. M. Jones, Later Roman Empire (1964) 628–9, and note 44. This is the only period for which regulation amounts are known; presumably those of A.D. 360 are not dissimilar in quantity from those of the Principate: 3 pounds of bread, 2 pounds of meat, 2 pints of wine, 1/8 of a pint of oil per man per day.

To save endless repetition of the sources in the footnotes, a bibliography of the thirty-three sites in Table I is given instead (p. 141). From Table I the bones of horses, dogs, and cats have been excluded. Other military sites, from which there is evidence for food but which are not used here, include: Baginton (The Lunt), Balmuildy, Canstatt, Carrawburgh, Castledykes, Chesterholm.

I have used, wherever they were available, the improved readings and interpretations of the papyri contained in CLA (A. Bruckner and R. Marichal, Chartae Latinae Antiquiores 1954-). Many of the papyri quoted in this paper will be found in Sergio Daris, Documenti per la storia dell'esercito romano in Egitto (1964). For a list of the abbreviations of these sources, see p. 142.

I am indebted to George Hodgson, M.Sc, for the results of some unpublished analyses of bones.

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