Deadline: June 25h, release August 15th.

Theme: Daily life in camp and on campaign
Introduction: Jasper Oorthuys, 'Soldier, society and standing armies: introduction to the theme'.

the Source: Jona Lendering, 'Sherds from the Desert. The Bu Njem Ostraca.'
“The nomads have arrived, bringing four asses and two Egyptians carrying letters to you, Gtasazeihemus Opter, and a runaway slave.”
It is just a notice, scribbled on a potsherd from Bu Njem, an oasis in Libya once occupied by Roman legionaries, who called it Gholaia. Archaeologists have found almost 150 of these reports. Although the texts have not profoundly changed our knowledge of ancient warfare, they can still offer quite interesting information about ordinary life in a not so ordinary fort. 

Theme: Jim Webster, 'Daily life in the armies of the Greek city states'
From Massila on the coast of Gaul to the Crimea, cities were founded by a collection of amateur soldiers who scorned drill, shunned military discipline and casually defeated fierce barbarian warriors and the armies of Persia, the greatest power in the world at the time. In their new homes they modified their fighting techniques to cope with local conditions.

Theme: Christian Koepfer, 'Feeding the Roman Army
Comedamus et bibamus: cras enim moriemur!
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we´ll be dead!
Just like modern soldiers, the Roman milites were confronted with two different states of food supply: In the camp and on campaign. From the Etruscan wars on to the end of the Roman Empire Rome kept quite a large army, which had to be nourished properly to keep its readiness for action. '

Theme: John Walsh, 'The Nomad war camp'
The first thing you notice is the smell: dung is everywhere. Pungent animals range around the yurts and their dung lies around, ready to be used for camp fires. It is like standing next to a herd of goats. The animals are not silent either and their various types of bleating add new flavour to the camp life.
A few small boys are wrestling with each other and shouting dramatically, while older youths are riding on ponies around a target and striking it with arrows. Some girls participate in the fun and games but most women are absent, probably busy inside their yurts.

Theme: Ross Cowan, 'Life in the Praetorian Guard'.
A legionary of the early Roman Empire could be forgiven for thinking that his praetorian counterpart had it easy. The praetorian received three times as much pay and regular rewards of cash and kind known as donativa. The praetorian’s term of service was considerably shorter, eventually fixed at sixteen years to the twenty-five years of the legionary, and what made it more galling was that the praetorian’s pension on retirement was greater. Above all, the praetorian’s life was characterised by easy soldiering – if indeed it could be called soldiering – in the capital, guarding the emperor’s palace and providing escorts for him and other members of the imperial family.

Features

The warrior: Ross Cowan, 'The real Pullo and Vorenus'. Illustrated by Graham Sumner.
In the popular HBO/BBC television series Rome, the legionaries Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus play a leading role in the events leading to the downfall of the Roman Republic. The producers of Rome are keen to point out that Pullo and Vorenus were historical figures, but how much do we really know about them?

The battle: Iñaki Arrizabalaga, 'The battle of Magnesia. An alternative reconstruction.'
Building on anti-Roman sentiment in Greece particularly by the Aetolian League, in 191 B.C. Antiochus III led an army planning to liberate it. Antiochus and the Aetolian league failed to gain the support of Philip V of Macedon and the Achean League. The Romans responded to the invasion by sending an army to Greece which defeated Antiochus' army at Thermopylae. This defeat proved decisive and Antiochus was forced to retreat from Greece. The Romans under the command of Scipio Asiaticus followed him across the Aegean. The combined Roman-Rhodian fleet defeated the Seleucid fleet at the Battle of Eurymedon and at the Battle of Myonessus, and the Roman army was then able to cross the Hellespont into Asia Minor. After some maneuvering, the Romans forced a decisive battle against Antiochus´ main army.

Be a general: Murray Dahm, 'Make Camp'
One of the most impressive features of the Roman army was the fact that at the end of every day’s march when on campaign they would build a camp surrounded with a ditch (fossa), dyke (agger) and palisade (vallum). The rigorous discipline required to maintain this uniquely Roman routine has inspired admiration and emulation throughout history. When a legion or an army settled in one place for long periods, or indeed permanently, they would build permanent camps.

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