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> No one needs 4 liters of salt per week Back in the day people used a lot more salt than we do.[0] Before refrigeration, salting (brining) was the primary me

> No one needs 4 liters of salt per week Back in the day people used a lot more salt than we do.[0] Before refrigeration, salting (brining) was the primary method of preserving meat and fish in damp climates. Salt was used to treat olives for consumption. Butter and cheese were stored in barrels surrounded by layers of salt to prevent spoilage. Soft cheeses like feta were often brined as well. Salt was used to cure hides for leathermaking. Salt was used in cloth dyeing. There are probably other uses that haven't sprung to mind immediately. Note that these things are home production if the soldier has a farm, and a soldier's family would have been six people or so. Maybe they could make do with less than 200 liters a year. If they were economical with it. > where would all that salt come from? Salt mines. The Austrian city Salzburg is called that because of the salt mines there. Hallstatt had salt mines from prehistoric times, and in the modern day several dead prehistoric miners have been recovered from the mines. they were preserved by the salt. The phrase "back to the salt mines", meaning returning to an arduous job, exists because salt mining was hard and dangerous. It was usually done by slaves or condemned criminals. If there were an easier way to get the salt that was needed, people would have used it. 0. Actually this probably isn't true. It's just that all the salt used in making the the products and services we consume is hidden from us in far-away factories. Ed Conway's book Material World has a couple of chapters on salt. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt

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qwytw 3y ago
> Back in the day people used a lot more salt than we do.[0] Nobody needed 4-10kg salt per day (what a semi-skilled labourer and above could supposedly afford by ~300AD). The cost of salt by volume was about the same as wheat. So it was very cheap. Due to the bulkininess it was one of the worst medium of exchange someone could imagine. Just try to imagine having to transport to all the places where the army was stationed in. Absurd.. > Before refrigeration, salting (brining) was the primary method of preserving meat and fish in damp climates. Salt was used to treat olives for consumption Yes. Not something legionaries probably engaged that much themselves in. Also their diet (just like everyone else's) was mainly grain based. > Maybe they could make do with less than 200 liters a year. If they were economical with it. I don't think this claim can be substantiated at all.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago
  It was 4 litres per week, not per day, and payments could have been made to the home/family of the soldier rather shipped out to them personally.
  - qwytw 3y ago
    > It was 4 litres per week I couldn't find soldier salaries for ~300 AD but for semi-skilled labourers by it might have been up to 7 liters per day. The 4 per week figures seems to be based by using salaries from the early to mid 200 and price from 300 AD which is probably inaccurate considering there was significant inflation in that period. In any case as far as we can tell the price of salt by volume was equivalent to that of wheat. Soldiers couldn't have been paid the equivalent (in coins not salt) of 4 liters of wheat per week. > have been made to the home/family of the soldier rather shipped out to them personally. I doubt soldiers generally had families in living far away from where they were station and nobody paid them in salt anyway.
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AlecSchueler 3y ago
When is "back in the day?" It was my understanding that techniques like brining date to the early medieval days, and inventions like brining haring were what gave the Dutch a leg up in their expansion, long after Rome had fallen. I'm not disagreeing with you entirely, I do agree that salt was an important preservate in Rome and before that, but maybe not to the extent that 4 litres per week would be practical for most people.
- tuatoru 3y ago
  I don't know anything about Roman food preservation, nor about exact quantities. I was making the points that before refrigeration, a lot more salt was used for food storage, and that salt has other major uses besides flavoring food or providing necessary physiological electrolyte. As Ed Conway writes, the production of some important industrial chemicals starts with salt. I'm also not claiming that legionaries were literally paid in salt. I don't believe that would have been true after the very early Republic at the latest. Probably not after the first kings. The Roman genius for bureaucracy and record-keeping would have sorted out a more efficient payment system quite soon, I believe.
  - trompetenaccoun 3y ago
    Crazy idea but maybe they got paid in coins (money), since money was widely used in Ancient Rome already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_(Roman_army) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_(Roman_army) A lot more practical than kilos of salt.

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qwytw 3y ago

> Back in the day people used a lot more salt than we do.[0] Nobody needed 4-10kg salt per day (what a semi-skilled labourer and above could supposedly afford by ~300AD). The cost of salt by volume was about the same as wheat. So it was very cheap. Due to the bulkininess it was one of the worst medium of exchange someone could imagine. Just try to imagine having to transport to all the places where the army was stationed in. Absurd.. > Before refrigeration, salting (brining) was the primary method of preserving meat and fish in damp climates. Salt was used to treat olives for consumption Yes. Not something legionaries probably engaged that much themselves in. Also their diet (just like everyone else's) was mainly grain based. > Maybe they could make do with less than 200 liters a year. If they were economical with it. I don't think this claim can be substantiated at all.

AlecSchueler 3y ago
It was 4 litres per week, not per day, and payments could have been made to the home/family of the soldier rather shipped out to them personally.
- qwytw 3y ago
  > It was 4 litres per week I couldn't find soldier salaries for ~300 AD but for semi-skilled labourers by it might have been up to 7 liters per day. The 4 per week figures seems to be based by using salaries from the early to mid 200 and price from 300 AD which is probably inaccurate considering there was significant inflation in that period. In any case as far as we can tell the price of salt by volume was equivalent to that of wheat. Soldiers couldn't have been paid the equivalent (in coins not salt) of 4 liters of wheat per week. > have been made to the home/family of the soldier rather shipped out to them personally. I doubt soldiers generally had families in living far away from where they were station and nobody paid them in salt anyway.

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AlecSchueler 3y ago

When is "back in the day?" It was my understanding that techniques like brining date to the early medieval days, and inventions like brining haring were what gave the Dutch a leg up in their expansion, long after Rome had fallen. I'm not disagreeing with you entirely, I do agree that salt was an important preservate in Rome and before that, but maybe not to the extent that 4 litres per week would be practical for most people.

tuatoru 3y ago
I don't know anything about Roman food preservation, nor about exact quantities. I was making the points that before refrigeration, a lot more salt was used for food storage, and that salt has other major uses besides flavoring food or providing necessary physiological electrolyte. As Ed Conway writes, the production of some important industrial chemicals starts with salt. I'm also not claiming that legionaries were literally paid in salt. I don't believe that would have been true after the very early Republic at the latest. Probably not after the first kings. The Roman genius for bureaucracy and record-keeping would have sorted out a more efficient payment system quite soon, I believe.
- trompetenaccoun 3y ago
  Crazy idea but maybe they got paid in coins (money), since money was widely used in Ancient Rome already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_(Roman_army) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_(Roman_army) A lot more practical than kilos of salt.