The Macedonian War Machine 359-281 BC by David Karunanithy

Author:David Karunanithy [Karunanithy, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781783469963
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

In Menander’s play The Flatterer a soldier is portrayed with ‘his own pack, lunch bag, helmet, javelins, sheepskin, as heavy a load as the poor old donkey carries’.68 This second list of objects is less than the one in the preceding extract and points to the sort of portage a Macedonian on more short-term operations would consider.

Food Provisions

The kit of each Macedonian soldier obviously included food rations. Troops were sometimes ordered to bring along pre-cooked food with their packs (avoiding the burden of cooking utensils). These instructions were most often associated with mobile operations, the rations being required to last fixed periods of two, three, four or ten days. The ten-day requirement is the most frequently attested, intended for operations expected to cover an unspecified period of more than four days.69 We should keep in mind that modern military nutritionists consider pre-boiled food ideal for marching soldiers because it can be quickly prepared, more digestible and free of harmful micro-organisms.

Victuals for common rankers were moderate and plain.70 Grain formed the staple and it has been suggested that some pre-cooked foodstuffs were consumed in the form of hard tack biscuit, not unlike those of Roman legionaries or the large weevil-infested specimens of British Napoleonic sailors.71 It is thought that Greek mercenaries (400 BC) consumed maza (roasted barley cakes), chondra (barley groats) and ptisane (gruel).72 The Macedonians almost certainly ate comparable concoctions.73 Consumables which required no cooking at all are referred to in the Suda as fruit, vegetables and ‘unfired’ wine. Excavation of wells at the south and west stoas of the Pella Agora reveals that the inhabitants enjoyed olives, grapes, seeds and nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts and almonds). At least some of these may reflect popular culinary preferences, embracing those of military men.74 To supplement their diet, troops incorporated rice and dried fruit such as mulberries, figs and dates, which could be conveniently eaten while marching, the high sugar content being considered suitable for active soldiers.75

For animal protein, some took the opportunity to purchase salted fish and Alexander is recorded distributing dried fish among his men.76 On leaving the Makran Desert, the army received livestock such as sheep and cattle from nearby satraps. They were rounded up from royal hunting parks or scoured from surrounding lands.77 Supplies of meat were obtainable from the King’s sacrificial observances, with beasts slaughtered, then cured, smoked and dried for storage.78 Xenophon specifies salted meats as essential to a soldier’s diet: ‘We must pack up and take along only such as are sharp, pungent, salty; for these not only stimulate the appetite but also afford the most lasting nourishment.’79

As with Xenophon’s Ten Thousand in the Middle East, we should not dismiss Macedonians gaining local knowledge from their native-born women, servants and captives when gathering unfamiliar fruits, vegetables and edible plants. Many veterans would have become wise to what was best taken for a demanding march, further adapting themselves to the food habits of the indigenous peoples they lived amongst or were influenced by.80 Alexander’s expedition botanists

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