Traffic Through Hadrian\'s Wall

[D B Campbell]

This is interesting. Why does everyone think that civilians wouldn’t go through a fort?

I know that it is currently unfashionable to interpret the Roman army's infrastructure in purely military terms, and there are those who would argue that fort ramparts were powerless to stem the flood of jobbing tradespeople, prostitutes and performers who were attracted by the jingling purses of the feckless soldiery, ... nevertheless I am intrigued by the item of Roman military law (attributed to the jurist Macer, who is thought to date from the time of Severus Alexander) which states:

It is the duty of the tribunes or of those who command the army to confine the soldiers in camp, to promote their discipline, to keep the keys to the gates, to go around the guards now and then, to be present at the issuing of rations (?), to sanction the collecting of grain, to curb (punish ?) fraud in the distribution, to punish offences according to the limit of their authority, to be often present at the headquarters, to hear the complaints of the soldiers, to inspect those who are sick.

Sounds like a fairly tight ship to me. I'm not sure that one of those tribunes would take kindly to a flock of sheep wandering through his fort. :roll: