What Did the Roman Army Eat? Surviving on a Legionnaire's Diet

Blessed ARE the cheesemakers

'BREAD", the staff of life, way back then, and even forward to the 1900s, was full of nutrients. Grown in healthy soils.
Nothing at all like the "bread" stuffed with lifeless, toxic mysteries + added artificial Vits & Mins. It's bread, 'cause that's what's printed on the plastic bag.
Vinegar, grape, cider vin. is refreshing on a hot day. A tablespoon in a glass of water. Nice. Stops cramps.
Crucified got some - kept them up a bit longer.

All the tablets at Vindolandia - none complain of the food.

I don’t believe the Romans reclined to eat. I think it’s artistic licence to show rich people relaxing. I also think vinegar might mean wine (which was watered down to drink).

If there’s cheese I’m good.

- What has the Romans ever do for us?
- Cheese?
- Well, then! Blessed are the cheesemakers!

No, they were not paid in salt. Ever. If you can't get that right you have no business making history videos

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that there is only one cook book remaining from Roman times. Is this true?

Max Miller should do a History Hit where he introduces Dan to Garum which is a very smelly kind of gross ( decaying fish anyone) fish sauce.

Great channel 💯👍 Just liked and subscribed 👍

As I wrote in another video with you eating you need to learn some manners whilst eating.

Why did the Romans eat lying down?

So shitty food, exhausting and boring long marches, mosquitos, mud, lack of women. I really hope their pay was worth the trouble:D

Have a hard time taking anyone seriously who calls a legionary a "legionnaire"

While hardtack was issued right up until World War I, the most recent and descriptive accounts of the food come from the American Civil War. Soldiers often referred to the biscuits as “worm castles” because all too often they would become home to maggots and weevils.

Am I the only one who wants to eat hardtack bread ? I also watch videos talking about pirates’ life and the hardtack was also a meal that they ate

Posca tastes EXACTLY like Gatorade if you make it right.

I love the video. Theres one thing thats missing, constant foraging of small leaf herbs. Fair it may not be a substantial source of carbs, fat or protein but most people of that time were often chewing on or eating grass or other wild edibles. Other than period sources (do look up the original materia medica by Dioscorides, a fantastic roman herbalist and surgeon and a wonderous book and easily another video worth of material :) I also know as a trained herbalist thats lived in the bush for long periods, anybody thats familiar with most the flora and fauna of a region (like most people of that time) are instinctually eating and nibbling wild edibles. They would have been grabbing herbs and edibles along every march and foraging party as part of general life.

Come on History Hit, you know it's Roman Legionary not Legionnaire. They're not French.

They ate food. Good enough.

At least the Roman army didn't have to eat Dan Snow pushing BLM BS.

Hard tack was also known as ships bread too.

Didn't know Micheal Bolton was such a history nerd.

I saw in a Ted Ed video that many Roman soldiers ate a kind of cheese called Cassidus Arridus (spelling may be wrong)

You forgot the most famous roman condiment of all... garum.

Its sad when Large channels like this are starting to use AI artwork :(

All seem like great lads.

Please tell us that after Mr Rahm’s move to LIV that the taco colab is going to happen? 🙏

I still miss you my old friend. It still sad to hear that you were destroyed by the heirs of arminius but you will never be forgotten

hard tack were mixed with broth probably and yeah hot drinks.

Why didn't they use pasta instead of hard-tack?

Dan in armor is awesome 😂

To survive the lack of food they needed a hearty diet? Well, that goes without saying, doesn't it? It's like saying the solution to unemployment is more jobs... ;)

No thanks!

Posca is similar to switchel

It's legionary not Legionaire. A Legionaire is a member of the French foreign legion

More ads than USA network TV and that is saying something. Greedy. Greedy. Greedy

Would they have eaten Aurochs and bison too possibly??

Hunger is a common complaint for ALL soldiers, not matter the nation, on the line. Let us not forget, that the vast majority of line troops are late adolescent males or in their very early 20s. Young men are always hungry. Add to that the exertion of the soldiers life and no matter how much you feed them they are always hungry.

In Procopius' Vandal War, it is remarked that John the Cappadocian didn't have the hardtack properly baked twice so he could keep the savings for his own pocket. He simply had the bread baked twice using the heating pits under the baths in Constantinople instead of at proper bakeries. The result is that it wasn't properly baked twice and the hardtack of Belisarius' Fleet headed toward North Africa to attack the Vandals was full of worms and mold. One of the list of many corrupt practices of that no-good Johnny C.

As an American, when we hear hardtack we think Civil War. There was some hardtack from the Mexican War of 1846 to 1848 that was reused in 1861.

Dan Snow, a man who will risk his stomach to give us a great video.

What did the Romans ever do for us?

I'm afraid you don't know what vinegar is. It's literally sour wine. The English word is derived from the French word "vinaigre" - literally vin (wine) aigre (sour)

And why? Because vinegar is made from wine! As wine gets old, it can attract a certain kind of bacteria (much like alcohol's yeast) that will eat the alcohol in the wine and turn it into acetic acid.

Posca was very likely just expired wine, left to the air.

I think posca is great and I make posca-like drinks every week and drink them every day. I LOVE vinegar though. I have a friend that says he would almost rather die than drink vinegar drinks so he would hate posca. I am guessing Dan doesn't like vinegar.

Dan's encounter with hardtack reminds me a little of Drachinifel's video in which he tries to recreate Royal Navy rations c. 18th-19th Century. His expression when he comes to grips with ship's biscuit is priceless.

Nice Caesar vibe you got going on! Those biscuits would make a lot of dentists angry these days XD

Blessed are the cheesemakers.

Interesting. Thank you kindly for sharing it!

I get it... It's not a video about armor but dude... Is it that hard to find a decent segmentata? Or maybe just wear a toga?

The wild garlic that's dotted around the uk was planted by the Romans.. the used it a lot in their foods.