Roman Forts - A Watermark
On The British Countryside

Roman forts were our forte! (If that is what you call a pun, the scribe says I should apologize. Oh, well...Sorry!) We were so good at it because we got a lot of practice.

We built them so we could sleep in peace - and we could build them in our sleep. At least, there were one or two that I woke up in, without remembering having built them. After a really hard day's march, there's nothing officers like better than sitting on their horses, watching exhausted soldiers build a fortified camp.

The Roman army built camps and forts everywhere. Your flying machines found traces of them (the shape of a 'playing card' - four straight sides with rounded corners) all over the landscape. They told your scholars where to dig. What they found seemed to upset them. They expected them to be much more alike.

While we enjoyed a well-earned reputation for being very orderly, all Roman camps and forts are not copies of each other. Of course there was a 'proper' way to build a camp - and every camp prefect knew how to build one better.

That fine old saying "When all else fails - follow instructions" was a fine old saying when I was a boy.

Roman Forts or Camps - What's the Difference?

Camps had tents, not solid buildings, because they were temporary. We built most of them for one night stays. Making and breaking camps takes time and was one reason we usually marched only twenty miles a day. Granted, with all the equipment we wore and carried, that felt like enough.

Forts were more solid because we
expected to use them for longer. The walls and buildings were usually built of timber (like these at the Lunt). If the fort was going to be used for a very long time, the timber was often replaced with stone.

Roman forts and camps were everywhere. Fortresses were something else. A Roman legionary fortress was a very big fort. It was built for the five to six thousand men of a full legion. Roman legions didn't move their bases very often so the Roman army built its fortresses of stone - to last.

Roman Forts Were Not Built to Be Defended

We made it our business to know what was happening in the area. If trouble was coming, we usually went out to meet it. We liked to choose our ground for a fight - with plenty of 'elbow room'. The cavalry especially hated being besieged. There's not much they can do in a fort. Sieges often meant eating their horses.

Trust me, if there is a siege, you want to be outside the walls - every time!

Forts were places where we lived in peace and war-time. Like anyone's home, they were places where things were lost or just forgotten.

Things your scholars found when they dug up our old camps are often displayed for you to see, if you visit the many sites of forts that are open to visitors.

Return from Roman Forts to Roman Army Built