Re: Romans as Engineers

Thomas Barclay wrote:

> Donald,
>
> Most of the army was *not* engineers (don't say that - you'll get John
> Atkinson all excited!). But they were directed by engineers. Every
> day, they'd start their marches early (this is past a certain time
> period) and their head units would have already scouted a location and
> they'd lay out a camp, just like the one the night before, to house a
> legion (thousands of guys). It'd have an earthen rampart and logs
> emplaced to make assault difficult. It had a very "standard" shape and
> size. EVERY NIGHT in hostile country they did this. What a feat. And I
> can understand why the soldiers didn't like it. God, I've dug a
> trench, moved a mile, dug it again, as pointless PT. Never for a
> serious reason... but it was hard work.
>
> They actually beat the crap out of some forces because they attacked
> at night and the enemies hadn't thought to build any defences or have
> any night combat drills. The Romans were something amazing in their
> time.
>
> Thomas Barclay

Yes they were lead by engineers during building projects, but the
troopers
did all the work...  (To me this makes them engineers in a "sense",
because of all the "construction knowledge" they gain by doing all that
labor.)

One thing I thought was amazing, was in one of my "roman soldier" books.
It was saying that by the time the lead units had found a good camping
spot, the last infantry units wouldn't leave the old camp for another 3
hours, and the baggage train wouldn't arrive at the new camp for another
5
1/2 hours after that.  Talk about a looong column!  According to the
book,
the average distance between camps was about 10 miles, and the effective
length of the marching column was 22.5 miles.

(BTW, that book is: "The Roman WAR Machine" by John Peddie, page 75.)

 I got it from the Military Book Club	These guys are really cool!  You
can get military books on almost any subject. (except secret stuff of
course.)  I was able to get books on my favorite period of history --
the
middleages.

Donald Hosford