u/ArthurCartholmes

What it says on the tin, basically. When I read of historians estimating that the Gallic army at Alesia numbered about 80,000 men, the Romans fielding armies of 86,000 men at Cannae, and so on, I just can't fathom it. Even in the 18th century, with far more advanced agricultural methods, canal networks and so on, assembling and feeding forces of that size was a mammoth task. How on earth did they do it? I just can't see how they could have mobilised and sustained so many able-bodied men without ruining their economies.