The Standing Camp
The Roman (Latin) word for a legionary encampment is castra. [For students of Latin: The noun is neuter [see: gender] and the word is plural (although there is also a singular form castrum, which Lewis and Short defines as 'a fortified place, castle, fort, fortress').] Castra can refer to a temporary camp (castra aestiva) or a permanently standing one (castra stativa -- as in static or stationery). Aestiva is a Latin adjective for summer, which was the campaign season, so a camp made up for the summer would be left at the end of the campaign season. Sometimes the Latin adjectival form of winter is applied to castra, as in castra hiberna, which would be a camp meant for staying throughout the year, to the following campaign season and therefore a standing camp. The static camps required, among other things, a decent water supply.
You may know that some animals go into a state of dormancy during the winter that is called 'hibernation', from the Latin for 'winter'. You can also find animals that go dormant during the heat of the summer. These are said to 'estivate' from the Latin aestiva.
The month of March is named for Mars, the war god. There is a definite connection there between the month name and the fact that it marked the start of the campaign season.
The castra stativa developed over time. A camp set up for a quick siege of the enemy had different needs from one meant to withstand an enemy attack, but the camp developed a standardized form seen today in many archaeological ruins. This basic form was in place from about the middle of the first century A.D.
Soldiers' Quarters
Have you ever heard the area where soldiers live described as their 'quarters'? This comes from the gridded division of the rectangularly built castra. At the center of the ideal camp was the commander's tent (leather or canvas) or permanent structure, the praetorium. Other central buildings included housing for the tribunes, granaries, a hospital, and a workshop. Opposite the front of his praetorium was the main gateway to the camp and opposite the back of the praetorium was, likewise, the rear entrance. To left and right were the other two main gateways. The main gateway at the front was the Porta Praetoria. Its opposite was the Porta Decumana. The other two were, on the left, Porta Principalis Sinistra; to the right, Porta Principalis Dextra. A road passing in front of the praetorium, linking the left and right principal gates was the Via praetoria. The road linking the front and back gateways were the Via Praetoria and Via Decumana, interrupted by the praetorium, and so forming two separate ones. These three main lines of road intersecting like the letter t, divided the camp into four sections -- or quarters -- where the soldiers' barracks were located. In temporary camps, they might sleep under skins or in tents. A temporary wall would be compacted earth, backed by timber, instead of the stone used in the permanent fortress walls.
Sinister, as in Porta Principalis Sinistra, comes from the Latin for left.
Dextrous comes from the Latin for right, as in Porta Principalis Dextra
Structures for the Camp's Defense
The basic permanent camp was a rectangle surrounded by a massive wall and perhaps a v-shaped ditch. The walls were of various thicknesses and heights, but developed so as to withstand battering from the outside. Another aspect of the defense was the construction of lofty towers from which to rain down missiles on the attackers. There were also merlons, crenels, and battlements, for similar purposes on the tops of the walls. These formed the familiar crenellated top seen on medieval castles. Gateways with arched tops, had to be big enough to roll out siege engines and carts.
As the legions settled down in the area, they developed relationships with the area around. When the legions abandoned a camp, colonists settled in, repurposing existing structures and adding a church. Cologne's praetorium became the imperial residence (regia) c. 300. Legionary camps developed into fortified cities. Vienna, the Roman Vindobona, Strasbourg, Roman Argentorate, and Cologne, near Ara Ubiorum, are three modern cities that developed out of legionary bases and have remnants, in the form of portions of the walls and fortress gates.
References:
- "Roman Legionary Fortresses and the Cities of Modern Europe," by Thomas H. Watkins; Military Affairs, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Feb., 1983), pp. 15-25.
- Castles: Their Construction and History, By Sidney Toy (1985).
- Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft, by Geoffrey Hindley (2009).
- The Military Architecture of the Middle Ages: As Illustrated by Kenilworth, Warwick, and Maxtoke Castles. A Lecture. George Thomas Robinson (1859).
- The English Archaeologist's Handbook, by Henry Godwin (1867).
