Bumps, Thumps, sprains, and sorenesss

[Zeke]

Something I always wondered...how did the Roman legionaries deal with swollen soreness. With improper footwear that didn't have much support other then to keep the foot protected, I am sure the Romans had to deal with constant shins splints and sprains from overworking their muscles. Did the Romans have any knowledge of steatching? Or loosening their muscles up for the march.

I run Cross Country and I have the best shoes money can buy and I still have the constant ache of shin splints...without physcial trainers, how did the Romans cope with such constant pain when on the march?

 

-Zeke

[caldrail]

Something I always wondered...how did the Roman legionaries deal with swollen soreness. With improper footwear that didn't have much support other then to keep the foot protected, I am sure the Romans had to deal with constant shins splints and sprains from overworking their muscles. Did the Romans have any knowledge of steatching? Or loosening their muscles up for the march.

I run Cross Country and I have the best shoes money can buy and I still have the constant ache of shin splints...without physcial trainers, how did the Romans cope with such constant pain when on the march?

 

-Zeke

 

The legions were expected to work hard for their pay. Exercise was part and parcel of their training regime, and once a week a legionary was expected to take part in a route march overnight, including the temporary marching camp. To show how fit they were, when the three legions were destroyed in the Varian Disaster of AD9, emergency replacements were marched north covering twenty miles in five hours. Given they were carrying around sixty pounds of pack and equipment, thats a hard forced march by any standard. Unlike pampered athletes, the accent is on endurance and determination. A few aches and pains are not going to impress the centurion! The esprit de corps of any military unit is important here, because whatever the commander says is one thing, whatever your mates say is another. After all, what else could they do? If the soldier fell out of the march because of muscle strain or a blister or two, is the unit unit physician really going to stay by the roadside to help him? When they're miles away from anywhere and possibly in enemy territory? How did they cope? By gritting their teeth and moaning like crazy at the end of it. Just like modern armies.

[Gaius Octavius]

The legions did have ambulances and each legionary did have training in first aid. In their training, everything was over emphasized. For example, their pack weighed about 75lbs in training, while for the real thing it weighed about 60lbs. They were trained for hardship from the very outset of their lives.

[Lost_Warrior]

It seems to me that it would be rough going at first, but with constant training they would be less susceptible to injuries. I mean, sure, bruises, scrapes, sprains and the like would be very common, especially after a battle of any sort. However we have to look at it in context of the time. People were a lot tougher back then. We're completely unused to any sort of training such as they faced; we've gone soft LOL. We would be suffering greatly but they probably didn't suffer much from shin splints and the like, because their bodies were used to it.

 

It also seems that they had fairly decent medical care, especially for the time. They probably wouldn't be given much time to rest, but they must've had excellent liniaments and other such items to help with injuries. Clearly they were given some time, or medicine to help them recover, or both-because if they weren't, they would not be in very good shape for war.

 

There's only so much you can do with an injured ankle, or leg, or foot, or back. And if you don't rest it, the injury is likely to get worse. Since the histories don't tend to mention a bunch of lame legionaries (and even if they just weren't mentioned, I have a hard time believing a leader would easily allow his men to go lame from lack of decent medical care) there has to have been *something* which would have helped their situation.

 

My guess is, they knew very well how to handle these things. They must've happened quite often, but maybe not so much from overwork (since they tended to be stronger from training than we would likely be in a similar situation) but from injuries that just tend to happen in battle, or in other accident-prone conditions. If they didn't take care of such injuries, there wouldn't be much of a functional legion left after a few months.

Edited April 4, 2007 by Lost_Warrior

[Pertinax]

The direct medical treatment that was well known to the Romans was Achillea millefolium (Yarrow-aka the Centurion's Herb, The Soldier's Herb, Knights Millefoil, nosebleed) . The plant was cultivated as a commonplace wound salve , rightly so as it is a very complex chemical organism containing azulenes, thujones and a variety of flavinoids and sesquiterpene lactones- in plain english some very useful antiinflammatory and haemoststic drugs.

Yarrow as a tincture of fluid extract is widely available in the UK (whence it is said it was brought by the first Roman Legions -hence "Centurion's Herb "). I have also suggested elsewhere that its fresh twigs were a possible "roman toothbrush" , given its popularity across North Africa for this very purpose.

Yarrow was used as a healer of "wounds caused by iron weapons" by the Celt-Iberian peoples , ie: in an actual wound as opposed to as a dressing on bruising or as a medicine.

[caldrail]

Its true that roman medical care was quite good, recognisably proficient even by todays standards, and that this care was one of the perks of legionary life. Indeed, we understand that legionaries in peacetime had a better life expectation than most civilians. Nonetheless, the legionary life was no bed of roses. You would be expected to work, march, and fight as directed and woe betide you if the commanders thought you were a slacker! The men however took any excuse to avoid hard duty including bribery, someting the romans were never able to eradicate. This was one reason why artisan or scholarly skills were so useful in the roman army - it meant you were quickly placed amongst the immunes and therefore could sit in a warm barrack room whilst your mates were out there building roads and aqueducts. The hard labour of civil engineering was useful in that it provided free labour, kept the men busy, and also hardened them to physical work in the outdoors. Athletes on the other hand don't usually work in this pattern. Their physical effort is actually harder on the body because its concentrated into a smaller time frame and uses more effort within it. The roman soldier has a hard slog ahead of him, and despite the dicomfort of primitive equipment and lack of weatherproofing, if he grits his teeth and focuses on the task ahead he can indeed get through it. Human beings really can achieve extraordinary levels of endurance at times, and military life shows this to this day.

[Virgil61]

It's a great question although I can't answer the stretching issue. From my own experiences in the Army ruck marching is extremely grueling, especially when you're training new soldiers up to a standard. We would use 60-70 lb packs and go from 6 to 12 miles at a forced pace on a weekly basis--very similar to the weight carried by the average Roman soldier. Out of 100 soldiers you'll have around five or so who aren't in any condition to perform; shins and foot problems are usually the cause with lower back problems and hangovers as well.

 

There's really little medics can do--even today--about shins, feet, backs, etc except give out some ibuprofen and make you stay off the injured body part or at least not carry a pack on it until it heals. I was in airborne units for ten years, above average esprit compared to 'leg' units, and even then an injury is an injury. Sometimes you even have to pull soldiers off the line and make them stop in order to keep from injuring themselves further.

 

This begs the question; Did legions have stragglers? There's only three courses available as far as I can tell; give the pack to another soldier or put it on a wagon and let the injured party walk without extra weight, put the soldier on a wagon if they are available or have them 'fall out' of the formation and catch up during the evening bivouac. Depending on the legion's wagon train and/or internal culture--like modern day units I'm sure that each legion had it's own (internal culture)--I suspect having a certain number of stragglers was common. Better units probably had a centurion or some junior NCO type go behind and organize these men in some semblance of marching order.

Edited April 4, 2007 by Virgil61

[Pertinax]

as regards shinsplints-the solution is the same now as then-robust massage with a penetrating oil (olive oil would do nicely) . I ran for years and have had mine worked on by massage with avocado/olive oil , it hurt like hell but it did the job.

[Zeke]

Really? Thats interesting about the Olive Oil Pertinax. I am just told to ice my shin splints and hope they get better.

I have even have a little bump on the side of my leg now..sticking out where my shin is. So I have switched gears from running to biking.

 

-Zeke

[Lost_Warrior]

I didn't know that about shin splints either. I think I had them once, from walking uphill at a very fast pace, for a long distance (don't try walking 3-5 miles in new clogs either...I think I wound up with a stress fracture from that one). I didn't do anything about them, except not walk for a few days and they seemed to heal nicely, but I'm not completely unused to difficult training (though out of practice) and I am fairly active.

 

What exactly are shin splints and why would olive oil help them?

[Virgil61]

as regards shinsplints...worked on by massage...olive oil

 

Extra-virgin?

[caldrail]

This begs the question; Did legions have stragglers? There's only three courses available as far as I can tell; give the pack to another soldier or put it on a wagon and let the injured party walk without extra weight, put the soldier on a wagon if they are available or have them 'fall out' of the formation and catch up during the evening bivouac. Depending on the legion's wagon train and/or internal culture--like modern day units I'm sure that each legion had it's own (internal culture)--I suspect having a certain number of stragglers was common. Better units probably had a centurion or some junior NCO type go behind and organize these men in some semblance of marching order.

Yes. Military life back then wasn't so different than today. There would have been stragglers and an infuriated centurion waiting to shout at them very loudly when they turned up. However, remember also that they never had medevac capability, so any stragglers were in danger of being picked off, rather like the Foreign Legion in modern times, March Or Die. I imagine many of the stragglers were actually keen to keep up.