Roman Military Personal Equipment - Sarcina

Sarcina

Military pack carried by legionaries. The pack included a number of items suspended from a furca or carrying pole. Items carried in the pack include:

• Loculus: a leather satchel.

• Water skin: Roman camps would typically be built near water sources, but each soldier would have to carry his water for the day's march in a waterskin.

• Food: Each legionary would carry some of his food. Although a Roman army on the move would typically have a baggage train of mules or similar to carry supplies such as food, after the Marian reforms legionaries were required to carry about 15 days worth of basic food supplies with them. Most basic foot soldiers had to carry the food in a sarcina or pack.

• Cooking equipment: Including a patera (mess tin), cooking pot and skewer. A patera was a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in a ritual context such as a libation.

• Entrenching tools: Carried by legionaries to construct fortifications and dig latrines etc. Each legionary would typically carry either a shovel or dolabra (mattock) for digging, a turf cutting tool or a wicker basket for hauling earth.

• Sudis: Stakes for construction of camps.