Soldier's Life Outside Of Battle

[Jordan]

Hi, i'm a high school student that is currently taking Latin. We are working on a project involving many different topics on Roman culture and life. My topic is based on Roman soldiers and their lives outside of battle. There is much information on the lives of Roman soldiers and what they did on the battlefield but what kind of things did they do when they were off of the battlefield? I havn't been able to find much information on this subject and I hope that this forum will aid me in this project.

[Pertinax]

They were often engaged in major engineering works-Hadrians Wall is the first that springs to mind.The Emperor Hadrian ( in this example) was very keen to encourage unit cohesion and esprit whilst keeping garisson troops busy.They had policing and communication roles to fulfill "behind the lines" as no regular police force existed.

[Jordan]

Thank you for the reply, your information was very helpful.

[Princeps]

Roman board games

 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk1...ma/rbgames.html

 

Roman sports / ball games

 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html

 

Dice games, cards, drinking in taverns(?), bathing if they were able to(?)

[Jordan]

Thank you Princeps for the helpful information

[Pertinax]

For the Cavalry and Officer class hunting was very important socially and militarily , and was encouraged in Britain as an "all terrain" exercise for man and horse-and to bring fresh meat to the table.

[Kosmo]

Building roads, aqueducts and fortifications. Training. Watching "over the top" at the barbarians. Bathing and watching munera. Capturing beasts for munera. Killing emperors. Tending unit farms. Taking care of their families that often lived near in the canabae. Policing the area where they do their job.

[caldrail]

Average legionaries did all kinds of things. They might escort new recruits to the base fort, mount guard on places within the province, do repairs on equipment, or fatigues, weapon practice, drills, route marches once a week. The major engineering works were uncommon and certainly not desirable to the average grunt!

 

If the soldier was an immunes (pardon the grammar), then his craft would be practised or perhaps he had some other quiet job waiting.

[sullafelix]

Have a look at the Vindolanda tablets from the fort of the same name on Hadrain's wall. there are things like complaints about the weather and requests for thicker socks. Quite illuminating

[Pertinax]

I have posted a section on Vindolanda in the gallery and blog-you can pick up a link as well. In due course the report will appear as a separate entity .

 

http://www.vindolanda.com/ try that for a lead in

 

I started a small thread in the arch' news forum under the heading "Vindolanda Tablets" which links to some images

Edited March 3, 2006 by Pertinax

[Ovidius]

Hmmm, I guess Garrison duty is quite boring, right?

[Pertinax]

The Emperor Hadrian was, as a useful example, particularly concerned that those in garrison units be alert and ready for active duty if required, if you read about his frontier tours this is a constant theme: the exercising of units in otherwise quiet sectors . However the policing,census work, taxation related duties and patrolling dont sound like an entirely cushy number. The common problem ,then as now, is that nothing softens up a "hard " unit as quickly a nice stay in a well supplied city with fleshly diversions.Some ascribe to the construction of the various boundaries in Brittania and Germania the quality of a "team bonding" exercise, with various Legions and Auxilliae competing in efficiency to produce sections of Wall or frontier.

[Primus Pilus]

Hmmm, I guess Garrison duty is quite boring, right?

 

It's not so much boring as opposed to garrison duty being considered one of the factors in the degradation of the legions. As previously suggested, garrison duty included building fortifications, roads, aqueducts and even towns as well as regular drilling, so it was not necessarily sitting around all day twiddling one's thumbs. However, it is generally argued that because they were no longer mobile armies with the express purpose of defeating a particular enemy but that they rather served as border security guards that campaign discipline and the motivation for Roman glory and personal plunder had evaporated.

[Ovidius]

Hmm, but it means that it's less exciting, right?

[caldrail]

You betcha. Garrison life is a routine enlivened by menial duties and fatigues, much the same as modern armies. This was why roman commanders were so keen to have their men build bridges, aqueducts, forts, and roads. The men of course, were keen to do nothing of the sort. They would have prefered to get the light duties, particularly the ones that netted in some cash. For instance, new recruits were given a modest amount of coins to pay their way as they travelled to their training fort. The recruits were escorted by serving soldiers who conned them out of those coins as quickly as possible.

 

All sorts of duties took place in garrison life. Cooking, cleaning, washing, mending, marching, practice, latrines, ditches, plastering, painting, woodcutting, cobbling, admin, guarding - the list is endless.