Hello,
l'm curious what kind of fortifications the Roman legions built every day, after a long march. I cannot believe that every day they dug fortifications and built walls.
Thanks!
I can't believe the Romans did a lot of the things they did. :wink:
This is a popular topic. If you do a search in the upper right hand corner you can find all sorts of threads about camps.
Here are some good general ones:
Roman Marching / Temporary Camps. This is a longer discussion.
Medium Roman Marching Camp. This one has some good images.
Then there are very specialised topics you can find as well, such as:
Ditch dimensions or
de Bello Gallico 5.50-51, which includes some information on camps in Caesar's Gallic War.
Quote:This is a popular topic. ...
Yup. And on
this thread, we went in search of the marching camp at Normandykes. (Did you ever find it,
Byron?!)
No, haven't been out that way in some time. Too busy down south most of the time!
And they were not too defensive either, since Roman doctrine was usually going to offense when enemy was encountered.
So, they were probably more to prevent harassing/surprise attacks and also to keep own troops inside to reduce desertion (big problem of Roman legions all the time).
They apparently didn't always dig-in every day. I seem to recall an account of a Roman army (during the civil war in 69?) hurriedly digging-in their camp when the sudden approach of the enemy was reported.