Im watching 300 and so I googled soldiers walked 20 miles a day, on top of other stuff like fighting. Did they have bad joints? (Not including injuries).
We can injures from running and need a few days/weeks to recover. Did they just take breaks from fighting?
EDIT: Thanks for all the great answers everyone. Interesting stuff y’all have brought up!
In: 16
So I don’t know about Romans specifically, but there is evidence that knee problems and osteoarthritis are more prevalent in the modern world than in history.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/08/15/543402095/creaky-knees
We dont really know why, but it just doesn’t appear in very old skeletons as you would expect if the answer was just wear and tear. As you noted that’s all they did! Wear and tear! Yet less knee problems.
Current theories are multiple, nutrition is a big one, our diets are often worse than the romans. They were getting more vitamin d, they didnt play intense sports.
Sport is not like soldiering. So many knee injuries are from jumping and landing, or running. Roman soldiers just marched a long way.
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