Bret Devereaux

You can do. I have done it. I can run with an aspis, fence individually with it, punch with it. It can all be done, it’s just exhausting. But a 5th C. BC ekdromos was probably a lot more fit than I am.https://twitter.com/Verghast404/status/1262452292873117699 …

I actually question the idea that people in the ancient world were generally more fit than a reasonably active modern person. In most cases, higher levels of physical activity are offset by lower levels of nutrition.

I wonder how that question can be definitively answered. I bet @FlintDibble knows something about bone analysis.

This was my question. I have read that the better nutrition available in the colonies allowed US militiamen to be taller than stronger than British regulars. Obviously a different time period but we also see some people claim people were generally shorter back in the day 1/2

With Julius Ceaser saying Gauls were on average much taller than Roman Legionaries. How much of that is bigging up the Gaul's for his best selling book? I dunno, but still! A Roman had a lot of kit but also had 2 mules and a slave per 8 man team...

So if talking abt the Roman army, we know they were fed well & lots of meat There's a whole range of archaeological evidence, from human analyses to my favorite animal analyses. The army imported animals from afar, and had specialized animal husbandry and butchery methods

So to be clear, I'm not suggesting the soldiering classes were actively malnourished, merely that they probably did not have the ultra-protein-heavy-diets that, for instance, many modern fitness nuts do. And on that basis, I think assuming pre-modern supermen is unwise.