Travelling speed

**Vorian** · 01-26-2008, 11:27

How far could an army travel in antiquity and middle ages?
How much faster could a single horseman travel?

And how fast would a merchant ship travel?

If anybody knows anything related to traveling speed post here, I need some info.

**Innocentius** · 01-26-2008, 13:22

Tough one, but there is an answer to it: It depends.

A Roman army in 200 A.D. could probably travel pretty fast, whereas a Frankish army in 600 A.D. probably didn't travel very fast, even if they stuck to the same route.

It all comes down to What army travelled Where and When. How big was this army and how was it composed? Who commanded the army? And so on... A medieval army didn't travel very fast, that's all I can say for sure. But then again, Mongol armies were very much medieval armies, and they could travel miles and miles in a day... so again: It depends

**Vorian** · 01-26-2008, 13:46

Then I will get more specific.

How about a trained army moving with no particular haste, conserving strength in an area with an adequate road system.
Put both cavalry and infantry in that army as well as siege engines.

**CBR** · 01-26-2008, 14:25

There are lots of variables like size of army (how long the marching column), quality of roads (poor dirt roads and poor weather is bad combo), with or without slow wagons etc. Alexander the Great's army did something like 20 km/day on average.

Some of his smaller light(elite) forces and some fully mounted did 60-80 km/day but were in general done for short bursts and should not be considered average marching rate over extended periods.

The Mongols where not that different really. The invasions of Syria 1299 and 1300 has an average marching rate of around 24 km/day AFAIK.

Apparently the Romans expected to do 15-20 miles/day(not sure of thats English or Roman miles) for a 7 hour march, So thats maybe 24-32 km/day on a good quality Roman road and perhaps just for one legion with few if any wagons.

CBR

**Vorian** · 01-27-2008, 16:01

Thank you very much CBR

**Vladimir** · 01-28-2008, 18:01

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a legion was expected to fight immediately after traveling 20 miles (or soon thereafter). That would affect how far you would travel in one day.

**Vorian** · 01-28-2008, 19:34

Originally Posted by Vladimir

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a legion was expected to fight immediately after traveling 20 miles (or soon thereafter). That would affect how far you would travel in one day.

Could you find a source for this?

**Geoffrey S** · 01-28-2008, 23:36

Originally Posted by Vladimir

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a legion was expected to fight immediately after traveling 20 miles (or soon thereafter). That would affect how far you would travel in one day.

Not necessarily fight immediately, but they were expected to set up a fortified position after arriving. They basically had to have a defendable position immediately.

**SwordsMaster** · 01-29-2008, 21:52

Modern infantry with full pack are expected to be able to travel about 20-24 km a day and be able to fight afterwards. This is from the army manuals. I expect that in antiquity they would be about the same...

**scottishranger** · 02-08-2008, 03:05

Well I know that in the 18th Century an average pace march would be about 3-4 miles per hour, though in any kind of heat that could be deadly. Now the Romans and Greeks would be carriering alot more armour than the average 18th century soldier. But also there is the training aspect. I believe that the average Roman legionnaire was in much better physical shape and training than their pre-modern counterparts. So I think that they to could maintain probably the 3 mile per hour march pace also. So if you estimate a march time of around 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.( I do not know if these are accurate march times, I think the morning should be earlier) you get daily marches around 24 miles a day.

Okay, I have been reading a bit more on the internet, This is from wikipedia:

Quote:
Vegetius, the author of the only surviving treatise on the Roman Empire's military, De Re Militari, recognized the importance of "constant practice of marching quick and together. Nor is anything of more consequence either on the march or in the line than that they should keep their ranks with the greatest exactness. For troops who march in an irregular and disorderly manner are always in great danger of being defeated. They should march with the common military step twenty miles in five summer-hours, and with the full step, which is quicker, twenty-four miles in the same number of hours. If they exceed this pace, they no longer march but run, and no certain rate can be assigned."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_step

So my first estimate was fairly close. The extraordinary thing about this is that they are marching at 5 miles per hour for 5 hours. This is fairly amazing, it is no wonder the Roman armies were so victorious, they could move so fast. I am sure most 18th and 19th commanders would be absolutely thrilled to have their troops move that fast. The only way most commanders could achieve such speed would be through a forced march.

I am pretty sure that Tactius also wrote about this, but I cant seem to be bothered to search the pages for that right now.

**CBR** · 02-08-2008, 05:12

Vegetius says 5 summer hours which puts is more or less to 6 actual hours. And a Roman mile is around 92% of an international mile. That translates into around 3.1 and 3.7 mph. IIRC he is also talking exercise and not actual speed to be maintained for weeks on in a campaign.

CBR

**scottishranger** · 02-08-2008, 13:03

Originally Posted by CBR

Vegetius says 5 summer hours which puts is more or less to 6 actual hours. And a Roman mile is around 92% of an international mile. That translates into around 3.1 and 3.7 mph. IIRC he is also talking exercise and not actual speed to be maintained for weeks on in a campaign.

CBR

Still, 3 mph would be a good estimate then?

**CBR** · 02-08-2008, 15:01

Originally Posted by scottishranger

Still, 3 mph would be a good estimate then?

As 2.5-3 mph seems to be standard speed for infantry throughout history yes.

The first troops would march off just before or after daybreak. Depending on length of column/size of army it would take several hours before the last troops would leave camp.

One historian estimates that the army of Alexander the Great could have occupied more than 16 miles of road and thats without baggage animals. So when the first troops started preparing camp at noon or perhaps shortly before, the old campsite might still not be empty.

So size of army and the need to conserve strength for a long campaign would mean soldiers rarely moved the whole day.

CBR