Roman Army Bases - An Introduction to Fortresses, Forts, Fortlets and camps

Today we look at the bases of the Roman army, whether the temporary encampments constructed during a campaign of the more permanent garrisons built in timber or stone. We start with the marching camp, sometimes occupied for a single night, and consider the descriptions of these provided by Polybius for the second century BC and Hyginus for the second century AD, as well as the archaeological evidence. For more permament sites, the vast majority of the information comes from excavation and survey. Modern convention calls a base designed for a whole legion a fortress, one for an auxiliary unit a fort, and one for a smaller detachment a fortlet. We talk about each garrison and also about the types of buildings and design of each base. This video offers an introduction to Roman forts and fortresses. In the future we will build on this and look in more detail at what went on in these garrisons and what they were for. From that, we will also start to consider broader questions of frontier strategy, the balance between defence and offense, and the big - and hotly debated question - of whether or not the Romans developed a Grand Strategy, and if so, what this was. So in the longer run, this is starting place to help us think about what the Roman army was meant to do and how well it performed this task. For those interested in reading Hyginus, the best edition with text, translation and commentary is - D. B. Campbell, Fortifying a Roman Camp: the liber de munitionibus castrorum of Hyginus (2018).