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Comment by dmurray | Hacker News Reader

Roman legions marched around 30 km/day [0], carrying their own supplies, food, weapons and armour, needing to spend time making and breaking camp each day.

Modern European pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago seem to do about 20 km/day [1] and it's considered tiring but accessible by average people, not serious hikers. They carry less of their supplies and do not need to fortify their camp against barbarians.

Roman soldiers were presumably fitter and better trained than the average Roman (though maybe not by much, since everyone worked manual jobs). Maybe that's enough to account for the difference.

[0] https://www.quora.com/Did-Roman-legions-actually-march-20-mi...

[1] https://caminoways.com/how-many-days-does-it-take-to-walk-th...

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> Modern European pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago seem to do about 20 km/day [1] and it's considered tiring but accessible by average people, not serious hikers.

Yeah, because they sit in the Albergue half of the day. You need to start looking for one around 4pm or it will be full because people tend to stop walking around that time. It’s also an activity that mainly retired people do.

You can easily do 40 km/day on the Camino routes with manageable elevation (the coastal ones).

You’re right about the equipment weight though, I can’t imagine what a Roman soldiers full pack must have weighed with the textiles of the time. On the Camino, you don’t really need to bring anything except some clothes.

I see the point with the camp but on the other hand after the third day you’re more limited by your feet, not the time, so you would still have enough time for that in my estimation.

i’ve walked the via francigena and the italian section has quite a few sections of ancient roman road. they’re admittedly not contiguous, and are worn more extensively now, so i don’t get the same overall experience of treading on the stones for kilometers as they would have.

i target 35km/day with a 40L pack and finish my segments within 6-7 hours. asphalt, dirt and grass, and hiking trails (rocks, roots, dirt, etc) are the most standard surfaces and, to be honest, they’re all exhausting in their own rights so a change in surface is always welcome.

i can’t imagine marching most of this with near double body weight and then having to make camp.

That's how they conquered all of their known world though, out of sheer bloody-mindedness.

I'd like to add they were also doing all that wearing leather sandals.

Imagine the Roman army with Adidas Ultraboost.

And without coffee! So you can't get a quick 'pick me up' along the way.

> Imagine the Roman army with Adidas Ultraboost

It wouldn't have been any. After 3 days, the Adidas Ultraboost would have been "kaput"

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