The Unknown Warrior (7 page)

Pork, as Goldsworthy records, was an important element of the diet: ‘… pig bones turn up far more frequently in the excavation of legionary fortresses than auxiliary forts, especially in northern Europe, which suggests that citizen soldiers had a greater fondness for this meat. They are especially common in early legionary bases, such as Nijmegen in Holland' (Goldsworthy, 2003: 98).

At the fort of Segontium (Caernarfon), the assemblage of animal bones gave indicators of other elements of the soldiers' diet. The bulk of the bone was of cattle, as it was at Wroxeter, with animals seemingly arriving on the hoof to be butchered within the fort's defences. Mutton consumption tended to decline on this site after the second century
AD
, yet pork was still popular. Birds were also consumed, with the bones of mallard, geese, plover, woodcock and wood pigeon all being found alongside domestic fowl – although the latter formed 75 per cent of the bird bones on site. Fish and shellfish, too, were eaten, with oyster and winkle shells being found (Casey
et al.
, 1993: 76–7).

ratio frumenti em[ensi ex quo
ipse dedi in cupam [

mihi ad panem …

ad turtas tibi     m(odii) ii
Crescenti         m(odii) ix
Militibus legionaribus …

(Bowman, 2003: 104–5)

Although mostly relating to auxiliary troops, the astonishing written texts recovered from Vindolanda give further information on foodstuffs available to the soldier – one such text, from
AD
111, discusses the dispensation of salt, pork and goat-meat (Bowman, 2003: 34). A ‘long account of dispensation of over 300
modii of frumentum
(wheat) to various individuals includes a group of legionary soldiers … other [entries] suggest that it is being used for baking bread and twisted loaves (
turtas
) [see above] … Another account records a fairly large quantity of lard (
lardum
)' (
ibid.
: 73). Further accounts of foodstuffs include spices, pepper, roe-deer, ham, young pig, venison, honey, beans and emmer wheat (
ibid.
: 118–19). The Vindolanda tablets thus show the importance of wheat as a staple – especially for bread. One fascinating artefact associated with this activity has been found in a military context in excavations at Caerleon. Lead bread stamps have been excavated, marked out as being the provisions of the century of Quintinius Aquila of the II Legion (Brewer, 2000: 32). Cheese presses have also been discovered on military sites, and the excavations of the incredible site of Dura Europos in Syria revealed traces of graffiti in a pantry which recorded ‘payment for new cheeses and another type of cheese' (Davies, 1971: 132).

A further strand of information on dietary condiments available to the Roman soldier was found at Carlisle in northern England. Excavations at the Roman fort retrieved part of a Roman amphora which contained tunny fish paste. This was found outside the commanding officer's house, in rubbish assigned a late first-century
AD
date. ‘Clay panels on it proclaimed its superior quality to the discerning Roman palate. The translation of the Latin words, written in ink, reads: “Tunny fish relish from Tangiers, old”, “for the larder”, “excellent”, “top quality”. It is believed that the reference to Tangiers was to the style of the sauce rather than its true place of origin – as a modern sauce could be described as “Italian” but in fact made in the UK' (Roman Hideout, 2002). The authors of this report took the paste as being the property of an officer, but, nevertheless, this serves to indicate that exotic foodstuffs were making their way to the legionary fortresses in far-flung outposts. Another amphora, found at the fort of Vindonissa in Switzerland, bore the inscription ‘
THUNNI
' and thus would also once have contained this paste, while another had
OLIVA NIGR EX
.
DE
.
FR
inscribed upon it (Curle, 1911: 268).

Spanish fish sauce was also present in Pannonia. At Carnuntum an inscription on an amphora read …
O
…
D
 
Q ACONI VERI
 
PRI LEG XV APO
, which Bezeczky takes to mean ‘Perhaps “… [c]o[r]d(ula)?  Q(uinti) Aconi(i) Veri  pri(ncipis) leg(ionis) XV Apo(llinaris)”; “young ink-fish sauce, (property) of Quintus Aconius Verus,
princes
(centurion) of Legion XV Appolinaris”' (Bezeczky, 1996: 329).

Fish was a popular foodstuff even when not in sauce form and their bones have been noted by excavators on sites throughout the Roman world: ‘Pike was eaten at Butzbach, perch at Chester, sturgeon at Saalburg, and cod at Hod Hill … [Valkenburg at the mouth of the Rhine] also produced evidence for the common porpoise and whale, and also the cuttlefish, a great delicacy' (Davies, 1971: 129–30).

As those who have had a bad experience after eating shellfish will know, there is always a risk to the consumption of these foodstuffs: ‘In the early second century Terentianus, a legionary stationed at Alexandria, wrote to apologise to his father for not meeting him and explained why: “for it was at that time that so violent and dreadful an attack of fish poisoning made me ill, and for five days I was unable to drop you a line, not to speak of going to meet you. Not one of us was even able to leave the camp gate”' (
ibid.
: 130). Shellfish fragments, including oysters, mussles, limpets, whelk and cockle, have been discovered on fort sites from Caerleon to Chester (
ibid.
: 129).

Barrels might also have be used for transporting food to the legions, in barracks or hospital. One example, from Aquincum in Pannonia, bears a Latin legend Expac
NTR VAL LEG II ADI
(possibly Expac(to) n[u]tr(imento) val(etudinari) leg(ionis) II adi(utricis)) branded onto the staves, which Bezeczky (1996: 335) believes to mean ‘food on contract for the hospital of Legion II Adiutrix'.

In terms of cooking equipment, the Roman legion took bronze kettles with it on campaign (Wells, 2003: 97). A number of these kettles have been recovered from military contexts, including the ditch around the fort. Seven such kettles have been found at Newstead (Curle, 1911: 273–4). These are battered and have been repaired on several occasions, having been dented on the march; one kettle had a centurial mark upon it, another
TVRMA CRISPI NIGRI
(
ibid.
: 274).

Food was not just available as rations within the barracks or on campaign, the infantryman could also purchase items when he had any spare time – for example, when relaxing at the baths. At Caerleon, there is a great deal of evidence for the presence of Roman ‘fast-food' sales at the legionary fortress baths. Many mutton chops were recovered from the drains of the baths, along with chicken joints and ribs and trotters of pigs. Further finds from this context included wildfowl bones, shellfish, a hazelnut shell and even an olive stone (Zienkiewicz, 1986b: 20). The latter is especially interesting, and Zienkiewicz noted another discovery of olives – ‘an amphora containing olive stones of the first century
AD
has been found off Pan Sands, Whitstable, Kent. Davies notes that black olives preserved in wine must were eaten by legionaries' (
ibid.
: 224).

Archaeobotanical studies also give us good information about the diets of Roman troops. Samples from the sewage-filled ditch at the Beasden fort in Scotland were taken by J. Dickson during David Breeze's excavations in the 1970s; the bulk of the organic material found was of bran fragments, either of rye or wheat type (grain weevils also being found), the cholesterol levels perhaps indicating a bran-based diet. In addition, ‘the first discoveries were of great interest; they were fig pips. It seemed clear that they represented some of the food issued to the soldiers. Other unusual seeds were found: Coriander, Dill and Wild Celery' (Dickson and Dickson, 2000: 118). Similar seed assemblages have been found at a Roman fort at Carlisle, in a sewer next to a legionary bathhouse at York (both northern England) and at a fort in Welzheim (south-east Germany) (
ibid.
: 123). Seed coats of beans and lentils were found, as were seeds of the opium poppy – perhaps used on bread (
ibid.
: 118). Further traces of food found in the sewage included raspberry, bramble, bilberry, wild strawberry and some hazelnut shells' (
ibid.
: 122).

Waterlogged cereal bran, probably residue of the sewage produced by the garrison, dating to the middle or later 40s
AD
, was excavated from the inner ditch at the fortress of Alchester. The outer ditch contained evidence for crop processing – spelt wheat, and also a coriander seed (M. Robinson, 2000: 64).

Toilet

One image that is perhaps more enduring than most when it comes to the life of the Roman legionary is his toilet habits. The latrines at Housesteads fort on Hadrian's Wall would indicate that the men sat and performed bodily functions together, anathema to many modern sensibilities. Tradition decrees that sponges were used by the Roman soldier for his ablutions, but these were not always available, particularly in colder northerly climes, and a substitute had to be sought. Excavations of the sewage (which also contained parasites in the form of human whipworm and roundworm) in the ditch at the Bearsden fort might perhaps suggest an alternative: ‘the presence of weft-forming mosses in the ditch strongly suggested that these had been gathered as a substitute' (Dickson and Dickson, 2000: 120).

Some of the articles that soldiers would have taken on campaign have been excavated at the site of the encounter at Kalkriese, Germany. Here, the archaeologists have retrieved toilet articles (or at least fragments of some): ‘in particular a bronze carrying ring for
strigiles
(skin scrapers), a small pair of iron scissors (
forfex
) and the bronze handle of a razor (
novacula
)' (Schlüter, 1999: 104). Further nail cleaners were recovered from a garrison context of Exeter fort (Holbrook and Bidwell, 1991: 257–9).
Sebum
(or tallow), which was probably used as soap by Roman soldiers, was one of the items on the list of purchases made by the troops at Vindolanda and recorded on the tablets, and there is also a reference to
sudaria
, napkins or towels which might also serve to illustrate the fastidiousness of the Roman soldier (Bowman, 2003: 35).

Bathing was indeed important to the infantryman – testament to this lying in the various bathing buildings at military establishments throughout the Roman Empire. In Britain, one only has to look at the forts of Exeter (Bidwell, 1979) and Caerleon (Zienkiewicz, 1986a) to confirm this. Furthermore, the great bathing establishment at Bath was frequented by the military, with soldiers also able to perform their religious duties in a visit to this health centre. There are five military tombstones at Bath; through these, we know of Marcus Valerius Latinus and Antigonus of the XX Legion. Neither of these has the title
Valeria Victrix
awarded to the legion after its crushing defeat of Boudica, thus they were perhaps sculpted before the revolt (Cunliffe, 1984: 183–4). An armourer of the XX Legion, Julius Vitalis, was also commemorated here, having died at the age of 29 after nine years' service with the legion – he was recruited in Gallia Belgica and had belonged ‘to a craft guild, equivalent now to a friendly society. When he died his colleagues paid for his cremation and tombstone, carefully recording on it “with funeral at the cost of the Guild of Armourers”. Even a young soldier could be assured of a decent burial if he belonged to a guild' (
ibid.
: 185).

The II Legion was also represented in the tombstones at Bath – Gaius Murrius Modestus of the Second Adiutrix Legion, from Forum Julii in southern France, died at the age of 25 and had perhaps been visiting Bath in the forlorn hope of curing his wounds (
ibid.
: 185). Bathing was not simply an activity connected to cleanliness – it was a social activity. As we have seen above it was a place where soldiers would meet off-duty, they could buy food, they could also gamble.

Gaming

As we know, fighting was a relatively small part of the life of a legionary. Martial practice was important, as were other physical activities – often constructional. However, pastimes were essential for those moments not taken up by the orders of the centurion, and the Roman legionary liked to gamble. This, as we shall see in succeeding chapters, is something that the ‘squadie' of all periods has enjoyed.

Glass and bone gaming counters have been found from several phases at the fort of the II Legion Augusta at Caerleon in Wales, some unstratified, but others in the barrack blocks themselves (Barrack Block B). In addition, a die to aid the progress of the game was found (Barrack Block B) (Evans and Metcalf, 1992: 161–2, 184). It was not only the barracks that yielded gaming counters – at the fortress baths several small finds, particularly from a drain running from the baths, pointed to elements of gambling by the troops. Here 30 coins were recovered: ‘We may presume that money was brought to the baths not only to pay for refreshments, and for such services as were available there (the massage, bath-oil, depilatory and dental services, etc) but also to gamble. Large numbers of counters (of pottery, bone, samian, glass, stone, shell and lead, on decreasing order of frequency) and dice of bone and bronze indicate that gaming formed an important function at the baths' (Zienkiewicz, 1986b: 20).

A similar story seems to be applicable at another legionary fortress in Wales, at Usk, where eighty-seven glass discs were found and, as Manning wrote, these ‘clearly … had a function in life in the Fortress, and this is most likely to have been in some of the many “board” games which the Romans played. Such games will have helped to alleviate the boredom which was an inevitable part of the legionary's life, and, no doubt, there was the added spice of gambling' (Manning
et al.
: 1995: 87). These counters were less frequent in later layers within the fortress and the excavators speculated that this might mean that gaming was not so popular with native Britons now on site who did not have the ‘Mediterranean cultural background' of the first-century legionary soldier (
ibid.
: 87). In northern Britain, the same story is true – one finds gaming counters at the fort of Newstead in Scotland (Curle, 1911: 338–9) and even a probable gaming board from Corbridge in Northumberland, constructed from stone and with an incised square with lines demarcating fifty-six internal squares (
ibid.
: fig. 50). Dice and counters were also present on this site.