Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of ancient warfare answers with me, Murray, your weekly fix of ancient warfare tidbits and knowledge, hopefully.

We're answering questions from viewers or listeners from all our different formats and forums.

So you too can ask a question, whether it be on Facebook or sending it my messenger or good old-fashioned letter.

And, of course, you can send us an email as well.

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question now the question today is how did armies get or store potable water while on campaign

and the asker says i I visited Massada in Israel

a few years ago and it was spicy in the sun. Nice term spicy. The material there discussed the site's

system system. That is quite a conquester. But didn't address how the Romans laying the siege

functioned in that heat.

And indeed, this is one of those big questions of ancient warfare,

and not only in terms of how long an army could last,

but also in terms of how large an army could be.

We've got stories of Persian armies drinking rivers dry, the oxes,

and several others on their march into Greece in 480 BC, for instance.

And we've got several other sort of accounts, which are more anecdotal than provable.

But, you know, to have a large number of men, you're going to have to have a large amount of water, or at least access to it.

And one of the things we've got going on in the source material is drinking water.

And, you know, very few of the sources we've got concentrate on what is a very mundane.

Well, we went and had a drink.

We've had a drink.

...