eli5: How did old militaries (such as ancient Rome) manage to keep fed and hydrated thousands soldiers in long military campaigns over long distance and time?

Question

eli5: How did old militaries (such as ancient Rome) manage to keep fed and hydrated thousands soldiers in long military campaigns over long distance and time?

In: 8

Answer 1

As with today the front line soldiers are and were a small% of the total army.
Romans were amazing at logistics this is the key to an army. Different specialist soldiers cooks, mechanics, joiners, engineers, bridge builders etc etc all accompany the force (before or behind depending on role) and they do their specific jobs to help the army.
Just look at a town, for it to succeed we have teachers, road builders, bin men and a 100 other jobs to keep the town running, same as an army.