Before Marius - the Marius mule

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

Before Marius how did the legion carry it's equipment? I know Scipio made some large changes but none of them are to do with carrying equipment. Was it strapped to the soldier or did they carry several things in each hand, or were more actual mules used?

 

vtc

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Before Marius how did the legion carry it's equipment? I know Scipio made some large changes but none of them are to do with carrying equipment. Was it strapped to the soldier or did they carry several things in each hand, or were more actual mules used?

 

vtc

 

Before the Marian reforms the legions would have a large baggage train for carrying all the provisions the soldiers required. Marius' changes vastly improved the efficiency of the army and by introduce his "mules" he reduced the size of the baggage train required as support and made the army much more mobile.

 

Every legion had a baggage train of 500

Edited August 19, 2007 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[caldrail]

in theory each conterbernium ('close friends' - an 8 man squad of soldiers who lived in the same barrack room or tent) had access to a mule for carrying heavy loads, but the roman soldier carried what he needed to. Vegetius quotes the standard equipment load as 60lbs (thats 43 in our measurement) so it wasn't as bad as modern day, albeit for items less ergonomically comfortable. That however is the roman soldier kitted out according to the manual. In reality, soldiers always dispose of things they decide are superfluous, which pretty much means anything other than the bare essentials. However, in some circumstances, it may have been necessary to carry much heavier loads although I can't think of any particular example.

 

The forked stick mentioned above is a somewhat primitive means of carrying loads, with the weight on the shoulder, perhaps offset by the lorica segmentata shoulder-pieces, though one wonders how these men felt after a days march with only chainmail - I wouldn't be suprised if the legionaries stuffed padding underneath to provide more comfort. The bag and any other external items were therefore tied to the forked end (?) and in true dick whittington style, the soldier marched until time to make camp.

 

Part of the equipment load was two stakes for camp building. I find it a little unbelievable that these stakes were used to build the palisade- surely they neeeded far more? - so they might have been used for other things, like plot markers or perhaps more practical uses could be found around the camp such as frames or tent supports.

 

The contents of the standard roman kit aren't known to me, does anyone else know anything about it?

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Here's an illustration of a "Marius Mule" from JP Vieira who regularly post his great artwork on this site.