Peter Caddick-Adams
Even when at the mercy of winter’s icy fangs, warriors have always served. From antiquity, the campaigning season traditionally ended in October, when troops headed for end-of-year quarters containing food, fodder for animals, warmth, and shelter. Even then, they typically jousted, exercised and drilled, repaired equipment, and made future plans. In the days when the northern hemisphere was mostly afforested, its populations were barely connected by a poor road network interspersed with settlements. The larger were protected by stone or timber ramparts, and contained granaries stocked with food. Armies therefore tried to stay put when faced with the icy veil, for the season of hoary-headed frosts degraded roads, froze grain, men and horses, and brought illnesses associated with cold. Snow and mire, the curse of angry weather gods, played havoc equally with wheels, hooves and boots.
The month of March was when troops traditionally emerged from winter lairs and headed out for a new season of dragon-slaying and derring-do, and, for millennia, this was considered as the start of the year. The French named this month Mars, after the Roman god of war, a tradition borrowed from Ancient Greece and their equivalent, Ares. In pre-history, the disappearance of the seven-star cluster of the Pleiades around 20 March each year, visible throughout the winter months in the northern hemisphere, marked the vernal equinox, and acted as a celestial warning for the ancients to start sowing – and sharpening their weapons. Although much fighting took place in spring and summer, big campaigns looked to autumn, when the men and horses that were needed earlier in the year for sowing and reaping had gathered in their harvests, and could thus be released for war.
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