The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

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ROMAN FORTRESSES, FORTS, AND FORT L E T S
A typical Roman fort of the Imperial period was
shaped like a modern playing card, with two short
sides and two long sides, and rounded corn e r s .
This is the evolved version of a Roman fort, since
the earlier fortified camps of the early Empire were
not so regularly shaped and were not generally designed
as permanent bases for troops. The fort and
supply depot at Rödgen in Germany was ovoid in
shape, and while the fortress of Haltern was more
regular in plan, it does not compare with the later
permanent forts of the Empire.
Typically, early Roman forts were built of earth
and turf ramparts (called m u rus caespiticus) ,
topped by a timber breastwork, with access by timber
gateways with towers on either side. There were
usually interval towers ranged along the walls and
at each corn e r. Forts were usually surrounded by
one or more ditches, shaped like a letter V but with
an aptly labelled “ankle-breaker” drainage channel
at the bottom. The Romans usually took this
drainage feature seriously, judging by the number
of excavations that show that the ditch had been
cleaned out and squared off. In the second century
AD from the reign of Trajan onward, when the majority
of forts had become permanent bases rather
than semipermanent ones while the provinces were
pacified and Romanized, forts and fortresses were
g e n e r a l l y, but not universally, built of stone. In
some cases this meant refronting existing forts by
cutting back the turf rampart, and in others building
in stone from the outset.
Depending on the type of unit stationed in them,
forts varied in size from 0.6 hectares for the small
n u m e ru s f o rts in Germany and Dacia, to 20
hectares for a legion. There were a few double legionary
fortresses such as Vetera (modern Xanten,
G e rmany) and Mogontiacum (modern Mainz, Germany)
until the failed revolt of Saturninus, who
g a t h e red the combined savings of his legionaries
to attempt a coup against the Emperor Domitian.
After this, Domitian decreed that no two legions
were to be housed together.
Plan of a legionary barrack block. The centurion lived in a
well-appointed house at the end of the block, while eight
men of each contubernia or tent group shared two ro o m s
between them. Theoretically there should be ten double
rooms, as shown in this plan, to accommodate the 80
men of the century, but in practice there were often
eleven or twelve sets of rooms, for reasons which no one
can satisfactorily explain. (Redrawn by John Clark)
The internal arrangements of fort resses and
f o rts was on the whole standardized, but with regional
or local variations. The center range usually
housed the headquarters building (p r i n c i p i a) ,
flanked by the commander’s house (p r a e t o r i u m)
and the granaries (horreae). There were four main
s t reets within the fort, and the orientation of the
fort was taken from the direction that headquarters
faced. The road running across the fort in front of
the headquarters was the via principalis, with its
two gates labeled for the right and left sides (porta
principalis dextra and p o rta principalis sinistra) .
The road that connected the principia to the front
gate (p o rta praetoria) was the via praetoria, a n d
behind the headquarters another road, the via decumana,
ran to the rear gate (porta decumana).
In several forts archaeological evidence shows
that there were other communal buildings, for example
the workshop (fabrica) where metalworking,
woodworking, and repair of equipment and
weapons would take place. There was also a hospital
(v a l e t u d i n a r i u m). It should be acknowledged
that from the ground plans alone, the workshops
and the hospitals might have been confused, each
consisting of small rooms off a central court y a rd ,
but in a few cases medical instruments have been
found, which strongly supports the label “hospital.”
The forts on Hadrian’s Wall at Wallsend and
Housesteads, and the fortresses at Vetera (modern
Xanten, Germany) and Novaesium (modern Neuss,