How was knee health for roman soldiers?

Question

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

Answer 1

Knee health of Roman soldiers was likely quite similar to the knee health of modern soldiers today. In other words, not always great.

The weight of the Roman soldier’s gear and equipment varied a little depending on what their specific role was, and also which time period you are talking about since their gear did evolve and change slightly over time.

But generally speaking, estimates range from about ~30-70lbs, or ~15-35kg. This is about the same weight as most modern soldiers are expected to be able to carry with them, although rangers, snipers and certain other more specialized roles are expected to be able to carry more than that.

Now, given how common back and knee injuries are in modern armies, even with all our modern knowledge and understanding of anatomy, modern marching boots and equipment, training and exercise programs etc. It’s probably safe to assume that the Romans had similar issues with back and knee injuries.

The Romans had to do a lot more marching and carried their gear for a lot longer periods. They didn’t have as good boots or shoes as we do today, and their exercise programs probably didn’t have health and sustainability as the highest priority.

Although, the life expectancy of people living back than was a lot shorter than it is today. So the effects of the knee and back injuries might not have been as prominent, since people generally died before the injuries became a real issue. Also, if an injury was really bad in the first place, you most likely would die fairly quickly anyway since you wouldn’t be able to take care of yourself.

It’s worth noting that the majority of the time, the Roman soldiers were not fighting. Most of the time they were marching or stationed somewhere, and battles were relatively rare. At the peak of the Roman Empire it was also huge and relations with most other factions were quite stable. So the average roman legionnaire probably didn’t see much fighting during their career.