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The archaeology of the Roman Empire is extremely diverse, with subjects ranging from religion, gender, sexuality, architecture, trade routes, economies, etc. The reason for the diversity of Roman topics is obvious, the Roman Empire encompassed all of the Mediterranean World, which included sections of North Africa, Asia Minor, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and of course the Middle East. The question is truly how did one city engulf the Western World for 300 years and leave remnants of its greatness in the Mediterranean area for over 1,100 years longer? How did the Romans completely dominate such great societies including Egypt and Greece; or utterly defeat the Western World’s great warrior societies such as Carthage and Macedonia? The answer can be found by studying the quality of the Roman Military; after all it was Rome’s soldiers who bore the burden of subjugating the Empires enemies and expanding the control of the great city. Therefore, any discussion on the topic of Roman archaeology would be incomplete without discussing the archaeology of the Roman Military. However, the archaeology of the Roman Military is almost as diverse as studying the archaeology of the Roman conglomerate itself. For this reason, only three topics will be covered in this Wiki when discussing Roman Legions: weapons and tactics, engineering, and lastly the effect of Rome’s armies on civilian life. The Legion was arguably the basis for the success of the Roman Empire (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2009) and these three topics discuss three different facets of the Roman Legion. The first ‘facet’ to be discussed is the weapons and tactics of the Roman Military

[] The previous link directs the user to a website detailing the enormous amount of food products that each soldier ingested in the Roman Army. Also discussed is the complicated process of providing all the food for the armies. According to the article, garrisons were supplied with enough grain to last a year. Soldiers themselves were expected to consume one third of a ton of corn each year (one half a cubic meter in the granary). Archaeological evidence suggests that this is true from examining the //horrea// of Roman Forts. Providing the grain was a major concern for the empire. In war time, soldiers would carry sickles with them to reap crops, they would also pillage and forage the countryside in search of food. Archaeological evidence suggests that garrisons would have tracts of land around their forts to either grow crops, or contract civilians (or force them) to farm the land in times of peace.

One aspect of everyday life affected by the Roman Military is how Romes legions influenced the civilian economy. This article that I found using Academic Search Premiere discusses the possibility of civilians producing bricks used by Roman armies for their fortifications and roads __ ([]) __. The article entitled "Soldier, Civilian and Military Brick Production," by Renate Kurzmann, states that Roman soldiers hired civilians to construct pottery (first paragraph). It is not very surprising than that the Romans would also hire civilians to make bricks. According to the article, bricks have been recovered with what appears to be civilian names stamped onto them, offering some proof that this theory could have occurred. Ultimately the article states that the evidence is not sufficient to prove that civilians provided a significant amount of brick production versus the legionnaires just yet, but time will settle the debate. John P. Bodel, of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, suggests in his book titled 'Roman Brick Stamps at the Kelsey's Museum,' that more and more wealthy land owners in the Tiber Valley began exploiting the claylands on their estates for brick production (Bodel,1983; p.1). Even though it says nothing about civilians producing the bricks, it clearly shows how the economy of the Tiber was influenced through the demand for clay. This is just another example of how Romes legions affected the everyday life of the average citizen throughout the empire. Here is a picture of a stamped brick taken from Wikipedia:


 * **Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier**
 * Author(s): Valerie M. Hope
 * Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 35, No. 1, The Social Commemoration of Warfare (Jun., 2003), pp. 79-97
 * Published by: [|Taylor & Francis, Ltd.]
 * Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3560213

Abstract
//Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization,'// __The International Journal of African Historical Studies__