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Tag Archives: Castra

Castra: Sources

10 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by artaud23 in Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Architecture, Caesar, Germania, Greek, Josephus, Latin, Military History, Polybius, Roman Britain

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Antonine Wall, Castra, Limes, Research

Anne Johnson, in her highly detailed and well researched book “Roman Forts” (1983), provides us with a convenient and useful list of literary sources on ancient Roman fortifications, known in Latin as castra . The most familiar of these sources are the widely known works of Julius Caesar on his various military campaigns of the middle of the 1st century BC, the Jewish War by Josephus, and the 6th book of Polybius’ Histories. Caesar talks of camps, fortifications, sieges, and tactics throughout. Josephus remarks on castra in the context of the Jewish Wars during the Flavian dynasty (70s AD), most likely with regards to the sieges of Masada and Jerusalem. Polybius is noted for describing a ‘marching camp’ of the 3rd c. BC.

Less well known, but perhaps more illuminatingly detailed, are the following ancient sources:

  • Hygenius Gromaticus, de munitionibus castrorum.
  • Flavius Vegetius Renatus, epitoma rei militaris.
  • Flavius Arrianus, Tactica.

According to Johnson (3), Hygenius, describes the model auxiliary camp, its construction and siting for a variety of different unit types. Hygenius was believed to have written during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Of the three books, this is the most obscure and of poor availability, even within research libraries. There is, however, a new (2018) English translation available by a Duncan Campbell, but I do not know anything further about the material.

The second major detailed source is Vegetius, dated from the late 4th or early 5th century. Vegetius deals with legionary as opposed to auxiliary camps, and “provides a wealth of detail about the organisation and tactics of the legions, and also deals with the duties of the various ranks of officers, the selection and building of camps, and the training of recruits.” (4)

Finally we come to Arrianus who wrote a manual on cavalry and their training. For anyone seeking ancient literary sources on Roman military camp life, this brief list should provide a good place to start one’s research.

Works Cited:
Johnson, Anne. Roman Forts of the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD in Britain and the German Provinces. Adam & Charles Black. London: 1983.

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Roman Limes: World Heritage Site

22 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by artaud23 in Architecture, Germania, History, Military History

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Castra, Fort, Fortress, Germany, Legions, Limes, Military, Raetia, Rome

The Upper German-Raetian Limes covers a length of 550 km and runs between Rheinbrohl on the Rhine and Eining on the Danube, built in stages during the 2nd century. With its forts, fortlets, physical barriers, linked infrastructure and civilian architecture it exhibits an important interchange of human values through the development of Roman military architecture in previously largely undeveloped areas thereby giving an authentic insight into the world of antiquity of the late 1st to the mid-3rd century AD. It was not solely a military bulwark, but also defined economic and cultural limits. Although cultural influences extended across the frontier, it did represent a cultural divide between the Romanised world and the non-Romanised Germanic peoples.

UNESCO. “Frontiers of the Roman Empire” UNESCO.org. Accessed: 05.22.2019: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/430
Source: Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Limes2.png

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Castra Flythrough

21 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by artaud23 in Architecture, History, Roman Britain

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Britain, Castra, Cohort, Fort, Gaul, Templeborough, video, Yorkshire

I came across this excellently produced animated illustration of a Roman castra, or fort, today as I was researching fortress layouts. This imagery represents the Roman fort at Templeborough, which, according to Wikipedia, was first built in timber between 43 and 68 AD and later upgraded to stone construction.

It appears to have been home base for a Gallic cohort, Cohors IV Gallorum, during the late 1st or early 2nd centuries. Its use for a cohort would make it a smaller scale fort, presumably less than 6 hectares. I am not personally familiar with the site, so comments and additional information from readers in the know is welcomed.

Video courtesy of Rotherham Museums and Galleries via Wikipedia

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