How can it take 2 months on foot, yet only 1 month per horse, when a horse can only travel between 25-35 miles a day, which is not twice as far as a human can travel in a day, but about equal?
In an extreme example from the year 9 BC, the future emperor Tiberius traveled on the Roman Roads 330 miles (531 km) between northern Italy and modern day Mainz, Germany in 36 hours without sleep. He was rushing to the deathbed of his older brother Drusus after the latter suffered mortal injuries in a freak horse accident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drususstein
If one of the main characters in The Fast and the Furious gets hurt in a street race, would not his teammates race to him as fast as they could?
Horses were used for pulling or carrying loads, they are only faster on short high speeds, not long distances
A man on a bike beats a horse over almost all distances, especially long distances. The only interesting competitive distance might be a flying 400m.
Also, AFAIK, the Romans did not have bicycles.
ps. I raced this event twice in the early 1980s when they had a mountain bike division, and still have scars on my right arm from one of them.
And I walk about 10km daily in one session and often do 30+km hikes.
On forced marches we could keep 7-8 km/h speed. And sometime we have practiced legionary walk which is alternating 200 steps jogging and 700 steps walking.
One of the badges was for walking 100 km in a day and lot of my friends got it.
But back then we were generally walking a lot, day by day, every year.
Good shoes and good motivation.
I am not doing this anymore.
It took us all day, but if a bunch of kids between fourth and eighth grades and their nun teachers can do it, I'm surprised how many adults on this web site think it's too far.
Kids these days are often a lot fitter than adults. I know people who think a 10 minute walk is too far.
You need enough water, good shoes and nice weather for that. Or a flatter terrain.
On flats, 20km takes ~3.2 hours and yes you can walk 60 or 80 in a day and not drop dead at the end of it if you take care.
It's only with advancements in backpacking and outdoors tech that anyone is able to do that.
I don't know why everyone in this thread seems to think titanium tent stakes and frame backpacks and gore-tex jackets and polarfleece and plastic pump-driven charcoal water filters and chocolate bars and first aid (that wouldn't kill you) were a thing during ancient rome.
You are thinking about military marches, which include supplies, setting up camp etc.
I seem to recall oxen speed being about 12 miles per day.