I've been wondering about logistical issues that armies faced in the antiquity. Most of the time, we focus on battles, major political events etc., but here I want to ask the experts on the subject what happened between the battles during long campaigns. Let's take a famous example - Alexander's conquest of Persia. He spent years on foreign territory, thousands of kilometres from his homeland and fought many battles. How did he reinforce the army? Were new armies created in Greece and sent to X to join Alexander's forces or did replacements arrive in smaller "blocks"? How was this coordinated? Did soldiers return to their homes in Greece periodically or were they stuck for years far away from them? What happened to the wounded who survived the battle(s), but were no longer useful as soldiers? Who garrisoned the occupied cities? Were the forces needed for that purposes significant? What about food and water - were the local reserves sufficient to sustain the army or did major quantities of food and water have to be imported? How were the soldiers able to replace broken equipment? And so on, and so on...
I don't really expect to get the answers to everything, but I would definitely like to learn more about this. I would be glad if you recommended some books about this topic, too. Note that I'm not interested in WWII or modern logistics, as it's much easier to get information about that.
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