You Wouldn’t Last a Week! What Did Roman Soldiers Eat on Long Marches?

In 358 AD, the future emperor Julian ordered every soldier to carry his own bread for twenty days. But what happened on a 30-day march? Who ground the grain, who cooked it — and who paid for it? Follow one Roman legionary through a month on the road: the hand mill his tent group carried on a mule, the porridge and hardtack, the sour wine called posca, a soldier's letter begging for beer, and the pay slips that show Rome charged its men for their own food. Then see what happened when the grain ran out — at Avaricum, at Dyrrachium, and on Julian's disastrous retreat from Persia. Sources: Polybius, Josephus, Vegetius, Caesar, Ammianus Marcellinus, the Vindolanda tablets, the Bearsden latrine study. 0:00 A strange order before the march 1:22 Feeding 5,000 men 2:46 850 grams of wheat a day 4:06 A day on the march 5:39 Grinding and cooking 7:20 Firewood, water and fodder 8:27 What else was in the pack 10:13 What archaeology says 11:34 How much could one soldier carry? 14:05 3 days or 15 days? 15:29 Soldiers paid for their own food 16:55 Officers and generals at the table 18:18 When the supply chain broke 19:58 Lessons from Rome's enemies 21:25 Julian's retreat from Persia 22:48 Thirty days later Would you survive a month on porridge and posca? Tell us in the comments. #RomanHistory #RomanArmy #AncientRome