Check out our latest video about the CRAZY training and diet of Gladiators; the most intense Roman athletes: https://youtu.be/Wmat8xK9raM

True quote, after Rome fell, Europe wouldn't field armies of this size again until the 17th century.

Bergamo he said Europe. Mongols are not in Europe.

Bergamo Bro... todays Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are FAAAR from calling it "Europe"

Bergamo The Mongols had massive armies but were more decentralized.

And it wouldn't have cities with clean water supply until the mid 19th century Only Napoleon managed to come up with a breakthrough in logistical warfare through his corps system. Until then, everything the Europeans did was rediscovering Roman logistics

Let s go to 15 century, check out the armies amassed by Ottoman Empire.

“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” - John J. Pershing

The enormous sizes quoted of these Roman armies in the ancient past makes total sense when accounting for the pre-industrial logistical train. Love the new video in all its technical and comprehensive breakdown!

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed!

Wdym, why would pre-industrial = easier to supply?

​@Better than Diode_Maturaty if you include personnel that supplies the army as being part of the army then it'll be an enormous number while the actual fighting force is much smaller.

​@Schmogel92 Yes, there are even differences in how opposing factions/groups would count troops. Some would count followers and retainers and other wouldn't. Most historians agree it's a combination of self embellishment and camp numbers rather than battle numbers.

I’m a logistics officer and it’s been truly fun deploying armies around the world and supplying them. It is the absolute difference maker.

I love this kind of stuff :) Logistics is suprisingly fun, I always found it weird not being in game like Total war in a good and active tool for the player.

100%, which is why I never play Rome 2 without Divide et Impera

@Rex Galilae So True! Cant even imagen going back to the bland taste of vanila :) tho I realy wish the system was more interactive. Like seeing your supply lines, being able to change/twick it to your needs. So you could change the lines rout If you saw an enemy faction army geting ready to raid and block it. Even If it would add 1-2 days to the travel time of each shipmeant. Hehe something like that.

I watched a goog Doc about Americans in Pacific 1941-44, Japanese had 2 kilos/man vs. US 2 tons of ammo and food/men/ month. Surrender immediatly. Do no weight for A-boms!

Total war is still about the military strategies as whole, when logistics is just part of military, but many can find it booring, when their more intrested in the military strategies itself.

I totaly agree to a point :) Tho Total war vanilla is not known for smart AI or the need to massivly focus on "strategies" When Hammer & anvill is realy the only battle tactic you need haha. Tho my hope has always been since Rome 2 (my first one) is that they add new features like this. Rather then remove them as they had done. Tho we have seen few pop back in W3 etc.

This was so fascinating. The amount of organization required at all levels is incredible.

Great video, I love the logistics of the Roman army just how much is required for such a complex system to work goes to show just how efficient the Roman’s were at times

At times? All the time XD

It's really sad that as the years went by and the senate and people had less to do with the system it slowly went downhill. From full professional armies always supplied from hundreds of miles of away to a mixed army of peasants and Tagmata units that couldn't move too far out of range and were often undersupplied. The pressure of the people to keep soldiers alive and well and the power of the senate to make it happen really did create a magnificent combination when working correctly.

I was in the US army in Iraq, our logistics are super impressive. Our soldiers can go anywhere and expect supplies of everything to already be waiting for us when we get there

"If you can't truck it.....

No disrespect to our fighters, but the supremacy of the U.S. military is due to our logistics and material/weapons. Comms and transp. Everyone we see in the field are a distant, distant second place. People think that China is a near peer. Have lived in China, and don't buy the hype. Our land and sea forces would crush them because of everything above. The only advantage they have is waves and waves of human targets. (worked ok in Korea)

Roman Empire as a super power lasted for a thousand years. US as a super power is just a little shy of 200 years, and both of them have the supreme military and economy. I live in the Philippines and this is what I have observed. China will lose a war with US in a year or two.

​@ChoomMoon Well technically, we've been one for 80 years, not 200. Early years of USA was when Britain and France were still at their peaks.

Can't kick ass, without tanker gas.

Warfare is always a situation of logistics, morale is what wins wars as much as sheer numbers.

Without good logistics there is no morale.

@pz3j exactly

Combat soldiers often make fun of "POGS," but soldiers win battles. It's logistics that win wars.

Russians are currently learning this the hard way…again.

Great video! Also I find it amusing If you read about roman civil wars both armies were so equally matched in logistics that the final battles seemed like a forgone end note to a much longer and huge brained battle of how gets more supplies and who cuts off the other from their own supply. see; Ilerda, Pharsalus, Amphipoli etc

Pharsales was won by the army with better morale.

@pz3j The final battle was yes however Pompey's initial strategy was winning, to deny Caesar of supplies. If Pompey had continued his strategy instead of giving into open battle per the senators demands he would have won imo

Also during Civil war, the oRoman Army if encircled, can surrender and join the main and winning Roman army. During the battle of Octavian Ceasar and Mark Anthony, all the Romans have to do is sink the ship and rescue the defeated roman army from the sea into their boats the army who chose to be loyal to mark Anthony can drown and refuse help

Supplies, maintenance, medical support have always been backbone of defending or advancing armies. Even to this day. Imagine soldiers trying to move forward or to front lines if APCs, Humvees, tanks and combat infantry and artillery were not maintained let alone stocked with ammunition, food, water and medical supplies.

Isn't this literally what's happening to Russia?

@Astro_Alphard Russia's never had a problem with sending men in with just a single clip of ammo and told to pick up a gun on the way

My son was in the US Army. They sent him to another country as part of a set up crew. Their food supplies arrived 2 weeks later. He said the local military gave them bread so they didn’t starve. My son said they were not allowed to leave to go shopping so they were stuck with just old bread.

@Astro_Alpharddifferent reasons russia thought the war would have been no more than a few weeks and did not prepare for a long sustained war. Had they actually did logistics it probably wouldve ended already.

@Astro_Alphard No, this is what’s happening to Ukraine

Amazing. This was way more complex than my first thoughts on the subject. Thank you so much. Your channel is truly a pleasure to watch. Keep going! 🥰

This video is not only an outstanding examination of the subject, but also an absolute joy to watch! The narration is superb! The visuals as well. I can only say: "Well done!"

Really cool to see the thought that goes into logistics it'd be cool to see how things improved over time

Logistics is the unsung hero of war. During desert storm the pipeline road stayed busy 24/7. When the war was over the 1st corp support for XVIII airborne corp for a lot of decorations. The field grades and the senior non coms. The workers? Not even a pat on the back. They were the ones that kept the supplies moving. After the war I put in for retirement. There will always be war.

Playing Conflict of Nations, military logistics(roads), and strategically placed airports have saved me a few times and helps me tremendously. I’ve been able to fight wars against multiple countries and on 3 fronts sometimes even because of them. I’ve fought a coalition of like 5 nations fighting 3 of them by myself and because of the logistics I had in place I was able to push 2 of them out and forced the 3rd into a surrender and ultimately make a deal with them to split lands.

It's mind-blowing to think of all the things the Roman Legions were capable of accomplishing! Building roads, building bridges, building forts, building walls, building fleets, building mountains (Masada)... If only other nations and civilisations cared as much about building, as they did about conquest and plunder, the world might be a much better place today...

I play Post Scriptum and amount of push logistics team can do in single game is realy felt by the side that has them also i like building stuff for the forces gives me more sense of purpose than running around and shooting in a game

That grammar..😅

Given that the Romans had to do all their logistical planning in Roman Numerals, it should come as no surprise that they made a real point of starting to prepare the logistics well in advance of actually starting moving troops around.

Can you investigate how they supplied the road builders please? Different stones and gravels were used and they would have to be quarried and transported in the right order at the right time to keep the roads advancing. This background information is priceless, well done.

So, if your country was being invaded by an overwhelming Roman force, the best strategy would not be to engage them directly and lose your army but to send it to disrupt their supply lines.

Thats exactly what did Arminium during Teutoburg battle.

With a good help offered by the hostile environment of the site of the battle. Indeed, when legions was deployed in normal circumstances against the same Arminius, he was defeated and almost captured.

That and hit and run tactics

This is basically always the best strategy. It weakens morale and you cant fight very well without proper supplies

How about "If you can't beat them, join them."?

Makes me wonder about Hannibal and crossing the alps. What a logistical feat that was

He lost 22% of his troops. He sent troops home into Iberia hoping they'd maintain garrison and be available as reinforcement, entering the Alps with 50k foot and 9k horse. He lost 13,000 men in 60 days, plus most of the elephants. I'd call that a logistical foul up, only rivaled by crossing a marsh where his celtic troops in the rear had to cross water where all the dry ground had been flattened, so alot of them drowned, and ofcourse, he also lost his eye. After Lake trasimine, he issued Roman loricas, helmets, and shields to his men as these men being mercenaries hired by coffers filed by trade, had no access to centrally fabricated high end equipment unless it was looted from Romans they ambushed. This looted gear being partially what allowed his line to hold at Cannae, and it contributed to the enveloping action being successful, as the Romans didn't realize the troops massing on their flanks were not Roman. The Carthaginians were not logistical masterminds, they threw money, subject peoples, and mercenaries at any problem the fleet couldn't handle, with the fleet being mainly a means of securing trade routes. Even the fleet was the only thing they centrally leveraged industry for, and like pretty much all navies, it was staffed with the poor. Carthage was like Sparta in it's later years, unwilling to spend citizen lives in decisive battle unless unavoidable, and unlike Athens early in the Peloponnesian War or Rome, it lacked a mind for logistical reality.

I love that tv series Anthony Hopkins such a good actor

@Beau David Which TV series mate?

@TheAmericanCristero Yet he still crossed and completely surprised the Romans. No one else had the Gaul to even attempt what he dared. The Romans wouldn't have dared. I believe it was a logistical marvel.

@c j the Romans did many things thought “impossible” for example conquering Britain and sending the largest invasion force fleet ever; bridge across the Rhine in 10 days, marches through the Alps in winter to surprise the enemy, the list is almost endless, just be curious and seek the information. Also Hannibal wasn’t as smart as the Romans, he copied Alexander in a different situation to which he had no answer to and he failed. When Scipio used Hannibal’s tactics against him he also had no answer.

Wonderful video - with lively presentation of research-based interesting info on well-organized logistics, designed by the Romans to win the war! This results-based strategy will, certainly, be a learning tool for the present conflicts as well as ongoing humanitarian and development contexts. Thanks for sharing such educational and interesting video!

In Total War games It seems so easy that you can muster and move thousands of troops at once. Nice video!

You can change that with Divide ey Impera mod.

@Armor King Yes, there is no way to play another Total War for me xD

Try divide et impera

Caesar used his grain merchants in 2 novel ways (De bello Gallico). They'd buy up regional stocks (denying surplus to the enemy) and pass with relative impunity as valued 'trading partners' discussing who had what 'stock' and deducing the dependant population (proportionate to the number of fighting men).

This is my favorite video! Hope you will make another one going even more in depth into this topic!

12:18 Not seldom the armies were stuck for a long to a very long time at the same place, not least when they besieged forts and cities. They were not constantly on the move. They could also be forced to face an enemy army for longer than preferred before given battle. In these occasions it would have been a both necessary task and important occupation of the troops. I believe to recall having read several places in Livy of soldiers occupied with foraging and harvesting (in Samnium?).

The Huns were so effective, because they traveled with a herd of horses providing food and transportation. They did not need logistics from outside and were therefore very flexible and independent and fast.

Been looking for this. One of the most important aspect of war hardly ever covered in detail. Be interesting to see aspect pf this video covered in more detail with subsequent videos. Thank you for this.

Unbelievable, that back in the days they could be so precise with delivering everything needed! Making everything work with so many moving parts

If you read their books, see the remnants of multi-story apartment buildings (insulae) that filled the larger cities, learn about their banking system, you truly understand how delayed were we by the religious zealotry and Middle Age. Instead of advancing the technology, the next thousand years people spent arguing how much human was Jesus and what day to eat meat on...

I read somewhere that Roman Legions were the best fighting force in ancient world not because they had the most skilled soldiers but because they can field large armies far away from home and can take massive casualties. You can decimate entire legions and yet the Romans will come back in the next campaign season with a bigger army. In the modern world its said that German soldiers in the WW2 when found out about the amount and type of rations given to American soldiers , they concluded that they cannot win the war. How can you win against an enemy who can field large armies and feed them from their home country an ocean away.

This a very important subject. In almost every video about war, people mention the supply lines, so I needed to know about it! Right to my favourite videos

Good generals think tactics, Great generals Think logistics

Great video. I added this video to my playlist "Ancient and Medieval military logistics".

Amazing video. Always love the topics you cover!

Glad you enjoy it!

Missing from this, the Roman's when going to conquer someone would build a fort a half days march from each other, this greatly allowed for refreshment and rest and a place for the supplies to go to in safety and then move along.....

Thank you for your hard work. I love videos like this that teach me cool history

This gives interresting perspective to the priod of movement of nations in later times of Roman era. Considering that that infastructure was still intact, that barbaric tribe leaders were commonly Roman soldiers, officers, auxilery unit leaders and that they knew the system, that those nations were probably tribes with about 20-40 000 people, they could use Roman military logistic system to conduct their rapid movements.

Hey Vegetius, what does the scouter say about their provision level?

This is the kind of documentary i like. Very organized and shining light on practical matters.

That was a well informed video on such content well done Filaxim Historia 👌

The Genius, like in italian il Genio, is a specific specialization of the army, actually any modern armies. Combat engineers mostly, but not only that.

They were so advanced for their time. Damn dark ages..

Fascinating, informed, literate, educational. Brilliant.

Ah, witness the military power of logistical infrastructure! Tremble before the weight of our baggage train.

Excellent work and research for the video. Well done!

I believe that when The US army was fighting in the Middle East, roughly 40% ever got deployed anywhere near a combat zone, and of those, only 10-20% of those actually went to the combat zone, (better protected transport in and out than for the Romans) and not all of those ever fired weapons in a direct fight. Rough estimates, but still huge numbers to support the front line.

That's pretty standard, only 1/3 of the army engage in actual fight

@Alessio f What's 'pretty standard'? In this example, 40% get to the area, but only 10-20% OF THOSE actually fight, In other words, 4-8 soldiers out of every 100 in the Army. So 1/25 - 2/25, not 1/3. :)

Dude, beautiful video. Nothing else to say. Well done.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed!

The Romans were able to project power to remote areas. Nobody was able to do this again until the mid 1800/s. the US Civil War was notable for large field armys,well equipped.The Crimean war was a mess. I have to laugh at the ARmy of William the Conqueror,8000? Harold had to dismiss his army waiting for William because they were unable to supply them. Also,they were not professional soldiers. Caesar invaded Britain with 40k? In WW2 the US supplied a two front War,the USSR, and the Brits to some extent. The Free French forces used US weapons. The USSr got 465000 vehicles. Food and aviation gas.

Four of every five barrels of oil used by the allies

@Chip's channel Sounds possible.

It's absolutely incredible when it's broken down like that

Vegetius also said: "You say I'm arrogant, I say damn right. That's pride. Pride in the Saiyan I am."

I totally believe you

A true Saiyan Princeps.

Odd that you would leave the more rebellious soldiers to guard the supply lines. Given their isolation from the main army, would that not make them just as likely to abandon their posts?

Maybe but rebellious troops are far more of an immediate risk in the frontlines as they could flee or disobey orders and ruin the cohesion and strategy of a battle. Guarding supply lines gives them less opportunity to fuck up life and death situations and would likely chill them out as it wasn’t a very risky job. They also still had commanders and loyal troops watching them.

good video... the romans invented logistics, really, as military operations on this scale never happened before (in europe)

The Greeks did. Philip, Alexander’s father improved on standing logistics of the time.

Romans learned it the hard way when they dared to attack Parthia. Both Crassus and mark Antony's losses in Parthia were thanks to the superior logistical power of Parthian's noble houses. But this explains why these 2 nation had to fight for 700 years. The greatest trait of Romans was their adaptability and their eagerness to learn from their enemies. Their logistical strategy shows why other nations fell before them.

That is pure fantasy.

Excellent video. Thank you! Regards from Canada 🇨🇦

Great video and keep up the great work

Thanks, will do!

An ancient Military-Industrial Complex…I like it

Why?

@smokeyhoodoo Because it worked

@Cameron Cunningham That's disturbing

@smokeyhoodoo  well we need the military industrial complex. For whatever corruption stems from it we do need innovation within our forces.

it's amazing how they can do all that when their numeral system isn't even usable for minus and addition, let alone multiplication and division.

So advanced and competent for the period!

It sad that the ancient Roman Logistics is actually better than that of russia 🇷🇺 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I don't really see logistics being the problem of Russian army as much as lacking sheer numbers of infantry and other personel.

This is a very precise and visually clear presentation. It further brilliantly illustrates how civilians suffer from war - and why war is the single most devastating occurrence in human life...although very popular with the same civilian populations still today, incredibly enough. Every imperial ruler throughout history has launched edicts forcing men to fight, populations to be robbed of their lands and goods, has caused looting, rape, enslavement, genocide, burning of property, destruction of villages, towns and cities, has caused famine and despair, has caused the decimation of families. There should be much more attention given to the history of civilians in military history. The soldiers are but a fraction of war. And the fact that any imperial ruler has caused such misery, exploitation, sufferings and deaths to the people, should be a very good reason to abolish any remaining kingdom, Britain.

GREAT video! As always. Yo my man I think there´s gonna be some universities inviting you to do a lecture BTW: Why are subtitles many times completely different than voice over? xD

Thanks for the kind words! An invitation like that would be a big honour, I would go in a heartbeat! For the subtitles, I just uploaded the original script I had. It differs from the audio because I tend to deviate from the stick sometimes when I record it.

Never really thought of this before, interesting idea

So fascinating!❤

No wonder why the Elves hate the Empire.

When Hitler invaded Russia in, he invaded with over 500,000 horses with most pulling wooden wagons........not much difference from the Roman armies of 2,000 years before. Due to Germanys lack of oil, coal burning trains moved the supplies to about 20 miles of the front line. Horse drawn wooden wagons then moved the lighter supplies to the front line.

Absolutely amazing.

Even the soldiers who were decimated got equal rations during a siege? Wow.

Decimation is more a myth than an actual thing. It was done once or twice at most

I hiked the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail in 2021. When I was on trail I thought back to my History degree and the distances that ancient armies are supposed to have travelled. I would say that I am in very very good shape and am an expert hiker with light weight gear and modern shoes. In this video it says that the Roman army travelled at 150 miles per week. I do not believe this is possible for an army to do this for more than one week. That means they are moving about 21 miles per day. At a fast pace on a trail I can do about 3 miles per hour. So that's 7 hours a day of walking to do 21 miles per day. It took weeks to build up to 20 mile days and even by the end of the trail I wasn't doing consecutive 20+ mile days for more than about 3 days. Try to do 21 miles per day for three days in a row and the fourth day you are going to be hurting bad. That basically means waking up at dawn and walking at a fast pace all day, if you stop for meals. I mean that's a very fast pace. I don't buy it. Most hikers, very dedicated hikers, cannot maintain that pace. Now when you look at armies not everyone is fit.

"Amateurs study tactics. Professionals study logistics."

I really like when I am presented with a concept I have never been presented before.

Muito IMPRESSIONANTE MESMO, não Somente as Capacidades de Prever as Condições, como as Considerações sobre COMO Distribuir O ONUS DA CAMPANHA EM DIVERSOS NIVEIS DE FORMA EQUITATIVA COM SUAS CAPACIDADES DE FORNECIMENTO, e também o seu GERENCIAMENTO DE RECURSOS HUMANOS, ate hoje me pergunto o Quanto teriamos Avançado sem a Estagnação da "Idade Média", onde a Civilização Regrediu...

tactics and strategies win battles logistics and economics win wars

This is a great video and I love the topic.

@6:22 If I may offer a minor correction, it's "besiege", not "siege". "Siege" is the noun, "besiege" is the verb, taking a direct object. "The Romans besieged the city." We also say, "to lay siege to" a town or city.

Moral wins battles, logistics wins wars.

Great video! The Praetorian soundtrack is a nice touch.

Top tier history channel

How in the world did you forget to include a soldier's meat rations with the staples?

Question. is it true or not that after the fall of the roman empire, how much knowledge was lost such ex: as cement or how to build roads?

Fantastic work! Regardless, when discussing roman provinces the term 'national' does not make any sense.

Ah, the music you can hear at 6:20 is taken from the videogame Praetorians... it reminds me of my childhood! anyway, great content, very informative. Thanks!

Vegetius was ahead of everyone for centuries.

Perhaps now some ppl can understand why Dacia was the most dangerous and fearsome enemy for Roman Empire ! The effort made by Rome for the Dacian Wars was enormous and for far the largest in all roman history and Rome was at the verge of loosing the war. And that would have been the end of Rome.

Water must of been a big problem at times back then .

The Romans were geniuses at war, and just one battle alone shows it, the Battle of Alesia in September 52 BC. Where Julius Caesar's armies of 60,000 men fought Vercingetorix and the Gauls (French), that eventually comprised a force of 250,000 that vastly outnumbered them. The remarkable thing was the Romans were not only totally outnumbered, but while they surrounded Alesia, the Romans were themselves surrounded on all sides by Gallic tribesmen. Caesar's centurions achieved the incredible feat of building not one but TWO walls around Alesia, the first wall measuring 17 km, to cut off the city and the second one of 21 km, to cut off any reinforcements to Alesia and defend against the Gauls who surrounded them. Alesia was land-locked so no hope of resupply by sea, yet somehow Caesar kept lines of communication open, until the Gauls and Vercingetorix finally surrendered -

“The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics.” said by some short French dude

You can have best training,equipment and numbers, but if logistic fail whole campagn will fail. On other hand you can have not numbers, equipment etc, but properly suplied army will be sucesfull

"French"

His height was average to that time.

Its like a huge organism with blood vessels and nervous system

You've got a lot to answer for General Varus.

Rookies think about tactics........Pros about logistics.........

The point made about the importance of roads to the Roman armies is the same reason for China's Belt and Road initiative. It will give them a massive highway system for deploying troops and supplies all the way to the doorstep of Europe.

Roman had the culture and ability to develop that China does not.

So fascinating!

I would be interested in how the spiritualness was taking care of back home and on the move for the Roman armies. Did they send priests out with them? Even today we have chaplains for soldiers.

After the empire embraced Christianity it's almost certain. I doubt it was done before, Romans copied offerings and rituals to ask for good luck from the Grerks but those were done in preparation of the campaign

@Alessio f interesting. Thank you. Sorry for the late reply.

Industrialized warfare before the industrial age.

I've seen arguments that Rome had the potential to industrialise.

It was not industrialization it was a market economy. Which evolved around the supply and demand of the market.

@bighand69 😂

I don't cear what artists make seeing romans march even if its not completely accurate is one of the most beautiful things on eartg

Now this is what Big Government looks like.

Believe it or not Rome was not based on big government. It was a market economy that was based on local governance hence why each region had a governors in each province that were in turn integrated into local society.

I wish total war did more with food and supply chains.

Isn’t it always seem to be war that drives advancements and raises standards of living in the long run? New technologies are found or discovered in times of need, and then dispersed and refined throughout society in peacetime.

Amateurs talk of strategy, professionals study logistics.