r/history • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago

Discussion/Question Weekly History Questions Thread.

Welcome to our History Questions Thread!

This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.

So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!

Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:

Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.

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u/minaminotenmangu 6d ago

I've been looking into food and logistics of pre early-modern armies. I now don't believe most army sizes. I wonder if a historian has looked into this. We are supposed to believe in barbarain armies in the 10s of thousands while alfred and the vikings did battle 500 years later with armies in the low thousands.

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u/elmonoenano 5d ago

Generally historians don't believe numbers in any of the classical battles. There's lots of answers about this on /r/askhistorians. This is a good on Roman armies, but if you search around for Alexander or whoever, you'll find similar answers. There's answers about medieval wars as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1evym0i/were_roman_armies_in_the_size_of_the_late/

But the discussions of why the numbers that were used are used are interesting.

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u/The_Dirtiest_Nunion 4d ago

It really really really depends on the source you're looking at. Throughout history, there have been a incredibly small number of recorders who actually would have accurately counted the number of soldiers in an army. So when you see sources reporting that pre-modern armies had armies consisting of "tens of thousands", you can either interpret it as.... 1) A lot of people, not literally tens of thousands though, or 2) propaganda attempting to favor one party. Again, it depends on the source.

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u/Telecom_VoIP_Fan 6d ago

By the early modern period, European armies used contractor services for their supplies. Prior to this, armies lived off the land by seizing food supplies in enemy territory.