Draft Animals in Roman Army

[Windyrdg]

Hello:

I am an author writing a book set in the 1st Century Roman World. My research indicates that the Legions frequently relied upon mules and/or oxen in pack trains to move supplies, equipment and even siege engines. Does anyone have any specific knowledge about this? I've called my drovers or teamsters a fumentarius, which I believe is correct. If you've ever watched people handle draft animals, you've heard the commands "Gee" and "Haw" for left & right. Any idea what the ancient Romans might have said?

 

Thank You

[caldrail]

This is not a well documented issue. On the one hand, we know that a contubernium of eight legionaries would share an animal between them to carry heavy loads (sometimes even their armour and weapons - the Romans mention this themselves) which implies they led the animals themselves. However, ordinary soldiers might own a slave (some were handed out from POW's as rewards though most would have been sold for profit quite quickly), and it isn't beyond reason that such dutioes fell to servants. An enterprising entrepeneur might even arrange for civilian labour to haul legionary equipment though in fairness I don't have any source material to confirm that.

 

Oxen were powwerful beasts but probably too large and costly for common use in the legions. Mules would have been preferable and Cicero sympathises with a man whose mule was appropriated by the legions, which implies the soldiers didn't just use an allocated animal, but whatever animals they could get hold of. The odds of a mules owner getting any justice from a military tribunal were not good either, and might resuit in outraged soldiers beating him up later.

 

Horses weren't used for draft work. I don't know whether camels were.

 

As for commands given by the drover, that's probably open to speculation. Petronius does mention in his Satyricon that if a handler can't reach the donkeys back, he must thrash the donkeys pack, which does rather suggest that animals were given physical inducement rather than verbal.

Edited July 12, 2013 by caldrail

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

http://books.google.be/books/about/The_Logistics_of_the_Roman_Army_at_War.html?id=LfRiXN5hhCUC&redir_esc=y would probably be your best source for information, as well as the books published by my former teacher Georges Raepsaet, a bibliography of whom you may find at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Raepsaet

[GhostOfClayton]

Some interesting info from the right period here. http://adventuresinhistoryland.wordpress.com/tag/size-of-roman-legion/

Hunter Davies came across "muleteers on the Legions' books" when researching his book 'A Walk Along The Wall', suggesting they weren't slaves.

[Melvadius]

Humphrey, Oleson & Sherwood (2002) Greek and Roman Technology : A Sourcebook has a few references which may be of use since this provides translations of contemporary sources the 'vehicles' section (pg 428 - 433) and animal husbandry (p 129-131 especially).