Workshops of War | How Rome Crafted and Supplied its Legions…
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- Опубліковано 15 січ 2024
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Part of the colossal success of the Roman Empire must be attributed not only to its impressive army size, but also its ability in producing arms and armor and supplying that army, which was distributed along hundreds of kilometers, on the very edges of the Roman frontiers. This video aims to analyze this astounding success, making it the first multicultural empire with a fully defined professional army. However, the difficulty in making this happen can be seen throughout modern archeological findings; there was no standardization of weapons and armour, and within every unit was a wide variety of equipment with a spectrum of lifespans, design, and style. The worst of these examples are Roman helmets found with no cheek guards and no final polishing. Their most impressive achievemnt though, was turning expensive state-of-the-art body armour, like chainmail and scale armour into regular commodities worn by every soldier; a remarkable feat for any army of that time.
Primary sources:
Berlin Papirus 6765.
Carlisle: H476, Inv. No. 14.
CIL XIII, 2828.
CIL XIII, 6677.
Codex Theodosianus posterior 15, 15, 1
Digesto 48.6.
Dio Cass. 69.12.2.
Tac. Hist. 2.82.1.
Veg. Mil. 2. 11.
Secondary Sources:
Allason-Jones, L. & Dungworth, D. B.‘Production of copper alloy artefacts along Hadrian’s Wall’, in W Groenman-van Waateringe, BL van Beek, WJH Willems and SL Wynia (Eds) Roman Frontier Studies 1995. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 317-321.
Aurrecoechea-Fernández, J.”“Talleres dedicados a la producción de equipo militar en los campamentos romanos de León” in Ángel Morillo Cerdán (ed.) Producción y abastecimiento en el ámbito militar: arqueología militar romana en Hispania, 2006, 309-334..
Bishop, M. C. “The distribution of military equipment within Roman forts of the first century A.D.” in C. Unz (ed.) Studien zu den Militärgrenzen Roms III. 13. internationaler Limeskongreß Aalen 1983 Vortrage (Stuttgart 1986), 717-23.
Bishop, M. C. “The Military Fabrica and the production of arms in the early Principate” in Bishop M. C. (ed.) The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, 1985, Oxford: BAR. 1-42.
Bishop, M.C. The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment,
Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR S275, Oxford.
Gschwind, M. “Bronzegiesser am Raetischen Limes” in Germania: Anzeiger der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Vol. 75, Nº. 2, 1997, 607-638.
Macmullen, R. “Inscriptions on Armor and the Supply of Arms in the Roman Empire” in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 64, No. 1, 1960, 23-40.
Menéndez Argüir, A. R. “El abastecimiento de armas para las legiones de las provincias de Germania (ss. II-III d.C)” in Aquila Legionis, 02, 2002, 59-84.
Oldenstein, J. “Manufacture and supply of the Roman Army with bronze fittings” in Bishop M. C. (ed.) The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, 1985, Oxford: BAR. 82-94.
Paddock, J. “Some changes in the manufacture and supply of Roman helmets under the Late Republic and Early Empire” in Bishop M. C. (ed.) The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, 1985, Oxford: BAR. 142-159.
Quesada Sanz, F. Ultima Ratio Regis: Control y Prohibición de las Armas desde la Antigüedad a la Edad Moderna. Madrid: Polifemo. 2009.
Rankov, B. “The Roman Ban on the Export of Weapons to the Barbaricum: a Misunderstanding” in Journal of roman military equipment studies, Nº 10, 1999, 115-120.
Scott, I. R. “First century military daggers and the manufacture and supply of weapons for the Roman Army” in Bishop M. C. (ed.) The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, 1985, Oxford: BAR. 160-213.
Sim, D. “Roman Chain-Mail: Experiments to Reproduce the Techniques of Manufacture” in Britannia, Vol. 28, 1997, 359-371.
van Driel-Murray, C. “The production and supply of military leatherwork in the first and second centuries A.D.: a review of the archaeological evidence” in Bishop M. C. (ed.) The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, 1985, Oxford: BAR. 43-81. - Розваги
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Im a big fan, keep supplying us with this amazing and informative content ❤I want to ask you about your background music, where do you get them? And whats the background music at the beginning of the video? Love you keep it up ❤️
@@piratesrevolution7614 Thank you, we are glad you enjoyed! Most of the music in the video is from a game called Praetorians.
When dacian wars ?
The GOAT video game that nobody knows *:')* @@HistoriaMilitum
@@youvebeengreeked It should be out by January 28th!
Some lucky woman in a party will be thrilled as I explain her, in abundant detail about all of this.
Man of culture 💪🏼
if she doesn't enjoy, then she is not the one
That's a ladyboy, but still good
"Fun fact - did you know the 30 hours a day you take putting on makeup is just enough time to make a gladius?"
Hmm...I wonder if you will be allowed to reproduce...
For additional context:
Chainmail, and armor in general, was always a highly prized asset affordable only to a handful of wealthy elites in ancient battles. The most impressive Romans achievement therefore was being able to turn body armor into a regular military commodity, and outfit EVERY soldier and auxiliary in the largest ancient army with state-of-the-art body armor; a remarkable feat for any army of that time! This is not only a testament to the colossal industry and economy of the Roman Empire, but also to its impressive organization. In the Late Empire, there would even be specialized state-funded workshops dedicated to supply the military!
Well dame, that just makes the roman army in general even more badass. =)
I can imagen tales and stories being told at campfires by people who didn't live within Rome's boarders of this mythical empire who were so unimaginably rich that their armies were composed of no one but élite troops, decked out in full metal armor from head too toe, much like how we today tell stories of Atlantis and Male under the rule of Mansa Musa.
Thank you very much for sharing that additional bit of information, very good ta learn. =) Have a nice day. =)
Production output is honestly an underrated aspect of pre-modern warfare. Everything had to be made manually and steel was tough to refine and manufacture.
If an army was destroyed in the medieval or ancient era, it was a nightmare to raise a new one even if you had the trained manpower at hand. Too time consuming and labor intensive to equip a new army.
look at WO2 the Amerians out produced Japan and Germany
Wonder how much it helped having s female work force here in the USA
@@charrua59 Not to mention the US didn't have to worry about having it's factories bombed like Japan and Germany were going through
That would help explain in part how armies became so incredibly small for a long time. Some of the biggest battles in history in terms of significance were pitifully small compared to their ancient equivalents.
@@Taima A lot of that has to do with just the population that was available to fight, as well as how feudalism worked. In the ancient world power was generally centralised, so the city state was in complete control of all aspects of the war-machine, where as through the medieval period, power was shared between the king and the nobles, making it harder for a regions entire resources to be utilised for a single goal
Very nice video on how the Romans equipped armies! This part of war was always fascinating for me.
Old saying. Field officers practice tactics, staff officers practice Logistics. Wars on won on Supply and Zeal as much as strategies
I was very surprised that the lorica segmentate was cheaper and quicker to make, I always thought it was more difficult to manufacture (thus more thus more expensive) since I think they stopped wearing them in the late antique era.
The only downside was the tooling needed for its fabrication, the hustle of having to maintain it more frequently and how uncomfortable it can be on hot climates. The reason why it got out of use lies elsewhere
Plate manufacturing required skilled labour, but each cuirass was only made of a few dozen flat plates, and used material more efficiently. Overall it took less time, making it less expensive. Maille is also a sheet of metal, but it took so much more time and almost as much skill to make dense weaves with high quality rings
Even better, it was made from stripes of metal of various size, so you could assemble one for big or for small man from parts is storage. However, as much as it was good in heavy battles, it was probably far more uncomfortable for daily wear during long periods of peace, so infantry went for more comfortable chain mails, while auxiliary cavalry probably used more heavier scale mail.
Thanks all you guys for such great information! Very knowledge.
Absolutely fascinated by the level of detail and craftsmanship in creating authentic Roman weaponry and gear! It's like stepping back in time and experiencing firsthand the might and ingenuity of the Roman army. The historical accuracy and dedication to replicating these ancient techniques are truly commendable. 👏🏛🛡
Just curious, do you plan to cover the evolution of these weapons over different Roman periods in future videos? Also, it would be incredible to see a comparison between Roman military gear and that of their contemporaries (like the Greeks or Persians). Keep up the great work - this channel is a treasure trove for history buffs like myself! Subscribed and shared! 🔥📚🗡
#HistoryRocks #RomanEmpire #Craftsmanship"
Thank you for the comment! We might consider covering the logistics of weapons and armour in the Late Empire next, which was surprisingly quite different.
I say it every time: "I love you're videos". they cover really cool topics and I learn something new and answers questions as soon as it becomes a question. You did a great job! Thank you for your time and all your hard work :)
Thank you for your kind comment, it means a lot! :)
2:46 the zoom out after explaining how long it would take to make one soldier's equipment makes one respect just how massive the Roman Empire was. Can't imagine how much work went into maintaining something of that scale.
Another incredible video!
People often think of the Roman Empire as a grand monolith, so hearing about the decentralized nature of the empire is quite interesting 👍
I think people underestimate ancient weapon and armor production as they try to contrast the efforts with those of hobbyist historians and historian hobbyists). Basically, people in the modern day trying their hands at similar weapon and armor making as experiments and what not, and then looking at that as the basis for how much effort was put in to it. They don't really take in to consideration the scale of the operation in the ancient world, where this stuff was done by people who's whole life and profession was doing this one thing, and the skill they acquired at it must have been masterful. My point is that the 2-year period that they say it took to make that one piece of armor was probably way less.
I assume they're factoring in securing the materials and processing them, too.
There were probably efficiencies in factorums and economies of scale.
I love this logistic videos
Also this descentralization of production may explain the various lenght of roman gladious that were found and even the variation in helmets design.Or why lorica segmentata was used mkre in some areas.Or why the shields we found dont exactly match each other.
That’s right; the swords and helmets would vary within any single unit, let alone units of different geographical locations. Shields are a grey area we chose to exclude from the video altogether because there is close to no evidence on their variation… Though its very likely they followed the same example as other military gear, to some extent.
Did you even watch the video?!?(I couldn't finish. I can' stand the stank.)
Thank you Historia! We're happy to be supporting your work. For those interested in staying informed, check out the link above.
Mmm logistics and manufacturing, never thought such things could be so satisfying to be explained. Bravo 👏
Fascinating stuff! I find logistics throughout history to be very interesting.⚔🔥😎
You said my comment! 😊
Man, your videos are of such high quality and class.
Your in-depth exploration of Roman Empire offers valuable insights, and the effort you put into researching and presenting the information is always amazing. Keep up the excellent work!
And that considering we had to discard a lot of information because the script was way too long 😂
Awesome video! Really enjoyed how you give a very good overview but also include specific smaller details to give examples! And, as a uni student myself, I am very glad to see how carefully you cite all your sources in the description! Keep up the good work :D
Thank you, very glad you enjoyed! We always include smaller details because they give these topics a lot more taste and realism, and are outright fascinating!
Absolutely impressive the vastness of the Roman factories. Wish they had discovered steam work to make mass production. Continue this serie of videos please 😎
they had, but it was used to open a temple door and as a fun gimmick. Not for production. IG they didnt need it.
I heard once that for every modern soldier that goes into battle you have to have 7 to 10 people behind the scenes to get the logistics taken care of. I'm not sure how accurate that is but given the time taken to make things and that they had to be made by hand the total number of people who worked at producing all the stuff must have been absolutely massive.
I heard that in WWII there were 19 soldiers in the rear per soldier in the front.
That is, if anything, lowballing it. The 7 to 10 are just the support troops, not the civilian staff.
Amazing detail in this video . Great job !
Nice work! I noticed the use of the praetorians (Game) soundtrack!
This is an excellent research-based presentation! Enjoyable to watch and easy to understand, with the eye-catching lively designs that depict the ancient history. Roman's effective management of resources, having adapted with the local conditions and labour-intensive way, is highly commendable. Great learning video!
I am glad you enjoyed. Thanks for watching!
so as someone who has made his own chainmail from 9mm rings I dispute the number of 6mm rings needed.
I needed approx 20000-25000 9mm rings to make a knee-long chain mail with sleeves
so a hauberk (no sleeves, waist-long) made with 6mm rings, like the ones romans used, would be 30000 rings at most
Always worth the wait and always delivering.
The ancient logistics system of the Roman military was astounding. Thank you for this presentation.
The Praetorians soundtrack omg my childhood flashed before my eyes ;_;
I still got the CD, gonna play it right after watching ;_;
My favorite ancient history channel! ❤
This is an excellent video treatise. Thanks for the effort it took to put it together.
I love this kind of logistics
Very informative video. Enjoyed every bit of it. Cheers😎🥃
Love these videos focusing on niche topics why i appreciate the channel so much
Exceptionally well presented.🎉🎉
Thank you! :)
Great video. The music from Praetorians is the cherry on the cake !
Great video, thank you to the team behind this video👍👍
After studying ancient military history for well over 60 years detailed videos like this one are priceless. Thank you so much.
You are most welcome. We will do what we can to keep covering niche and overlooked topics!
I enjoy learning about the everyday aspects of ancient life that mainstream history doesn't go into. Could you make a video detailing what tools the Romans used for blacksmithing, mining, ore processing etc. How they cooked and processed food. What machines they used
Amazing video, thank you so much Sir!
Most welcome!
Excellent work!!
I'm very happy to see another one of your videos. I always learn with you even about little things
And I guess we'll learn even more and more with time.
Glad to hear that! :)
Your video are always great & illuminating 💫
More growth for the channel fast! I want more videos :)
I'm glad I discovered this channel
Amazing production quality ngl
Videos like this really make it hit home just how amazing it was that Rome achieved what it did, against all odds.
One of the typical duties of an apprentice blacksmith was to make nails... When he was not involved with other duties he was making nails. Usually about a thousand per day.
Chain mail rings aren't much more complicated than hand forging a nail.
I'm thinking your estimates on fabrication time for chain mail is a bit high.
Was it expensive and time consuming? Yes. Was it some gargantuan effort? Probably not for an experienced armorer with good apprentices.
Absolutely fascinating. I found your channel today and have watched your series on how ancient warfare was actually conducted. I find this highly interesting from a TTRPG POV and I'm wondering if you have idea for doing this sort of thing for Medieval European warfare and equipment? Many a DM/GM needs could use such information. A good game master is a modest historian after all.
I am glad you are enjoying our content! After covering how ancient greek battles and cavalry battles are fought, I think we could try to tackle medieval battles, but it will be very challenging, as the variety of weaponry and cultural combat styles increases such that no one video could cover all its aspects and time periods. But perhaps we can cover one specific time period and make it happen! We will see what we can do….
I work with metal in every capacity almost, and thinking about putting the chain mail together is mind boggling. To pay a craftsman good enuff to build that, the cost would be insane!
And- 3mm rings! How in the world... ???
I recognise the Praetorians soundtrack anywhere!
TY for this! Its exactly what I was curious about!
A Really great video!!
I was a manual riveter and i can tell you change your minute to seconds. You get fast and they were certainly faster
I love all your videos but this one might be my favorite
Small nitpick, brass and bronze are metal alloys so they aren't raw resources that are just mined as ore.
Very interesting as always!
Thanks for the video
Is this music from game Praetorians?
Yep!
Logistics! From ancient times to current times. You can't get away form it!
And that's why it was known as the Roman Empire ! Impressive piece of work. Thx. 👍
This makes the loss of those legions at Teutoberg even more devastating.
It’s pretty awesome, that the Roman’s utilized scrap metal for other uses such as for boots and other items.
You know army quartermasters... nothing gets thrown away 😂😂
Love your stuff
Production times are way overblown, even using hand files you could easily make a steel sword and handle hardware in a days work if you know what you're doing, and I imagine the romans knew about grinding wheels and how to build a mill.
There's more to a good sword than taking a piece of rebar and abusing it into shape.
@@stormisuedonym4599 I'm a blacksmith. Abusing it into shape? It's called forging. You can spend months swooning the steel, gently loving it and caring for it's needs, and hope you wake up and find a finished sword, or you can get it hot and hit it hard. I am wearing a knife on my belt right now that I made in a couple days, and I'm no bladesmith. Educate yourself through experience, these history guys know nothing about the old crafts.
@@foggynight Now try that again, but with the understanding that I am both a historian and a smith. Modern blacksmithing with its gas forges and pure steels is not much at all like smithing in antiquity.
For starters, *you* don't spend much time procuring and processing the raw materials.
@@stormisuedonym4599 Brother, as a historian you should know blacksmiths weren't gathering the ore, building furnaces, smelting, that's ridiculous. Does a carpenter do the work of a lumberjack, sawyer, mill etc? Don't come at me and then make such stupid claims.
@@foggynight You're the one who leapt to the stupid conclusion after being presented with incomplete information. Operate under the assumption that you're looking at total man-hours for processing the raw materials, not just the hours you spend forging the blade itself. After all, the carpenter doesn't do the work of the lumberjack or the sawyer, or the mill, but the lumberjack, and sawyer do.
Good video, thank you!
I love the Jewish Smiths “malicious compliance” with the regulations, to craft weapons “not up to code”, in order to create a stockpile of “rejected weapons” for their revolt…😂
Great video
the chain mail you can easily get ten aprentices doing the rings and they could make tousands in a single day.
In all of the hundreds of years of the mighty Roman Empire ....none of them ever thought of using a wheelbarrow.
Just imagine how much faster construction would have been, but no, they just manually lugged about woven baskets full of earth, etc.
Incidentally, the wheelbarrow was invented by the Chinese to move their explosives rapidly around the battlefield, as I recall.
It is the little things that make you wonder. Like how nobody thought of stirrups until the early Middle Ages, despite millennia of people riding horses and using leather.
@@MM22966stirrup was invented before the early Middle Ages. The Chinese were using them as early as 3rd century. With precursors to the stirrup being used hundreds of years before that.
@@flarvin8945 And how many millennia were people riding horses before that happened?
@@MM22966 by around 1500 BCE, with as early 3500 BCE.
That sweet Praetorians music in the background...
I think your overestimating how long it takes to make a single chain for mail. Also, the heating time of metal for swords and other weapons can be also when another sword is being forged. It takes down the per unit time, but each would still take a long time individually.
Especially true for wire chains. Throw them all in the charcoal, red hot, but can’t melt. Use two tongs and then weld with a hammer. Forming loops from wire is very quick, and welding is super fast with an apprentice doing the hammering while you hold the chain.
Stamping is super quick too, with thin metal, and a good hand can place a stamp in a dye in around a second.
Do one step at a time for every chain and it goes quick.
I think the largest overestimate was the number of rings per shirt. I've made a shirt out of I believe 6-7mm rings. My shirt has about 40,000 rings in it. Not 160,000. The riveted to solid ring ratio also ends up being 1-1 as the nature of full construction is different than just one chain of 4-1. So that part of the whole equation is just poorly researched which makes me question all other numbers given even if the whole premise is quite sound.
The trick with chainmail is that it was never really wasted. You could easily repair it and add to it, and so chainmail could get passed on and on.
Nice use of the Praetorians OST.
I don’t know about the time producing other items but I was a professional blacksmith for many years and if it took someone 30 hours to forge out a Roman sword blade he was setting around more then working.
I would think more like 3 hours
3 hours is a commendable speed, but don’t forget they were working with ancient tools and conditions, making everything by hand with no modern technology. The ancient steel itself would be harder to heat up and work with than modern steel, not to mention sharpening it!
@@HistoriaMilitum I forged all my blades by hand using a 3-4 lb hammer on an anvil.
Imagine the same back then
When I set up at demonstrations I finished them using a foot powered grindstone, probably not dissimilar then what they used unless they had water powered ones.
The steel back then would not be harder to forge then modern steel if anything would be easier I would think if any difference
10:10 I find a bit about returning equipment interesting. I remember reading somewhere that cost of equipment was subtracted from soldier's salary, is that true? If so, did they get paid back for their equipment after they returned it?
Yes, the cost of equipment was subtracted from every soldier’s salary, and its very likely that a part of it was returned after retirement.
excellent video
cool video nice animations
Glad you noticed. We are improving our animations with every video!
@@HistoriaMilitum yeah you got some awesome visual storytelling. :)
They were talking about stuff like this on todd's workshop or one of those site the arrowmaker makes the whole arrow they would make tips and shafts and etc.
Fantastic!!
Very useful for my video game development...
fascinating
It would be fascinating to know or estimate what percentage of people in the roman population was occupied in the production of arms and armour.
Just how big a part of the economy it was and how many people were needed to sustain this incredible war machine.
Great video! The more I learn (and the older I get), the more I am interested in the logistics.
superb stuffo
Very good!.
This video is great, I'm just a little disappointed that prices were not added to equipment. I hope you will have info about it. How much full gear would cost? 1 year or 10 years of soldier pay or if it was passed, then has he paid only for repairs? Fascinating topic.
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very interesting
when do we get dacian wars pt 2?
We are working on it now. It should be out by the 28th of January!
@@HistoriaMilitum yessss!!!!!
how they get the iron without dirt and if rain come what materialresistens tey use for the bodyarmore, rust protektion, how mucht wood or cole you need
No doubt after a battle, armour and weapons from the fallen and defeated army would be collected.
11:04
Never weren't up to it, were they?
There is something major missing. Production time ok but from what to what. 30 hours from ore (most probably not) from flatstock iron?
30 hours for a blade just the smithing work would be quite long. is sharpening included?
well done
You would think that with this level of production there would be more artifacts.
Great video, but 1.3 years per armor link suit doesn't add up. Was the whole community blacksmiths? Still doesn't add up or is it just me?
My compliment from Castrum Romano La Crucca, Sardinia.
can we also have a video on persian army "immortals" "kardaks" "noble cavalry"
Does someone know how it went unnoticed when the manufacturers used the rejected low quality swords for their rebellion?
The military probably sent the bad batch of swords back to the civilians to be reforged, and the civilians would instead keep than batch and forge new better swords for the military the next time. If they repeated this a few times, they would have a good stockpile of swords piling up! Some corruption was also possibly present…
Having production decentralised had other benefits. A) reduced transport costs and risk of loosing expensive equipment to enemy forces. B) local population employed in furnishing your army ….winning harts and minds.
Yoseph of Areamathea supplied a lot of these materials to the Romans .At the time he was the richest man on earth , he wore a shroud and it was his shroud was the accurate shroud of Turin . He had a niece her first name was Mariam ( Mary) she was a temple Virgin .