a couple questions regarding hunting and horses

[Bradamante]

  Greetings my dear sirs,


I am in the process of writing my sequel and have a few questions to resolve before I can truly write a scene. Here is the overall premise to give you background:
 
I have two groups of warriors during the time of Charlemagne, (early 9th century), who are traveling to Paris where the Frankish army is besieged. Therefore, they are not reporting to a war summons where they would be expected to show up at a gathering point with several months' worth of provisions, but rather they are joining the war in progress. I wish to have the two groups come upon each other while they are both hunting the same deer and quarrel at first as to whose can claim the kill.
 The first group has seven warriors and ten horses. Having a wagon would slow them down, so I decided upon using three horses to serve as pack animals and will be led by three different riders.
 
Here are my questions:
 
The Romans built their roads as straight as possible and their purpose was primarily for the movement of troops, but secondarily for commerce. Would they have avoided forests or would they have built a road straight through them?
 If there weren't Roman roads through forests, then would taking a hunting trail through a forest be considered a shortcut OR would it take longer to travel that way even if the distance was less?
 I am wondering if hunting trails are essentially just a path in the words and not suitable for two horses to travel side-by-side, thus negating the ability for a group of warriors who are traveling with pack horses to use such a route.
 
All I really need is a plausible explanation for these two groups of soldiers to meet up on their travels and to do so while hunting.
 
Any thoughts, insights, suggestions on these questions would be welcomed.
 

[Sir Wolf]

you need to talk to my friend Sean Lothar on facebook. he's head of a Carolingian reenactment group.

[Sir Wolf]

there are roads thru forests. remember the Tuetinburg forest road where they were ambushed and a legion was wiped out

[Bradamante]

Sir Wolf,
I had not heard of that ambush before, but started reading up on it due to your hat tip.

I did some Googling on the topic and found this information from the Smithsonian magazine's website:

Arminius was a German who became trusted by the Romans and led them into the ambush.

Arminius had instructed the Romans to make what he had described as a short detour, a one- or two-day march, into the territory of the rebels.The legionnaires followed along rudimentary trails that meandered among the Germans’ farmsteads, scattered fields, pastures, bogs and oak forests. As they progressed, the line of Roman troops—already seven or eight miles long, including local auxiliaries, camp followers and a train of baggage carts pulled by mules—became dangerously extended. The legionnaires, wrote third-century historian Cassius Dio, “were having a hard time of it, felling trees, building roads, and bridging places that required it. . . . Meanwhile, a violent rain and wind came up that separated them still further, while the ground, that had become slippery around the roots and logs, made walking very treacherous for them, and the tops of the trees kept breaking off and falling down, causing much confusion. While the Romans were in such difficulties, the barbarians suddenly surrounded them on all sides at once,” Dio writes of the preliminary German skirmishes. “At first they hurled their volleys from a distance; then, as no one defended himself and many were wounded, they approached closer to them.” Somehow, the command to attack had gone out to the German tribes. “This is pure conjecture,” says Benario, “but Arminius must have delivered a message that the Germans should begin their assault.”

  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/ambush.html?c=y&page=2

This leads me to believe that the Romans would not have wanted to build roads directly through forests. They were dangerous places and allowed for armies or roving bands of brigands to conceal themselves before attacking travelers.

I think you may have helped me decide how to proceed with this chapter. Thank you!