How ancient armies, such as the Roman Legions, able to feed themselves during wartime campaigns?
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Disclaimer: I am a history fan not a historian. I’m in the middle of Anabasis which is about a group of 10000 Greek mercenaries hired by the brother of the Persian emperor to attack the emperor in a gambit to rule. Although I suspect Xenophon has some serious biases and may at times be an unreliable narrator it is a mostly historical account. I don’t really have an overview on food for ancient armies in general but I found this book insightful.
The availability of food is a serious consideration so far in this story. Being mercenaries the Greeks had to buy their food and as they moved through Persia they often encountered cities and towns that although were controlled by the emperor were not outright attacked and they resupplied at their markets. There was a time when moving along the Euphrates that they mention their animals dying for lack of anything to graze on and having to live on only the meat they could hunt. When needing to retreat out of the middle of Persia a major consideration in route was that they had already taken everything off the land they could eat on the way there and would have to take a different way or starve.
There are so many questions this book has raised for me. I can see a city resupplying 10000 soldiers but sometimes they come across towns and I suppose they must buy everything edible in those towns. At first I was like no way would they sell all their food but then I realized that they were most likely making a lot of money and could buy food with the proceeds. The living off the land part seemed weird to me, like a hundred people I think would have a hard time living off the land much less 10,000. But they were starving during this time so…
What I’ve realized is that warfare was totally different then. A general in the 19th century CE described warfare as an extension of politics. Today war is engaged for some particular goal and the actual fighting is an expense. In ancient times there may have been some overarching purpose but sacking a city, plundering it and selling its population into slavery made a lot of money. There is even a term for economies that are dependent in profitable war call a ‘conquest economy’. My feeling is that ancient armies needed be on the move going from either friendly city/town to the next for resupply or hostile city/town to conquer and take supplies.
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