How to sleep in a contubernium

[Bryan]

I read somewhere, for the life of me I cant remember where, that each maniple/century had their own portion of the camp's rampart/ditch to dig. (if you know what the source is, give me a hollar) If this was a given, that units had assigned areas to dig whenever erecting a standard march camp, could these same areas have been their responsibility to guard as well? How many men would need to guard a 25 meter (or whatever it was) section of a rampart, given that it was also protected by a large ditch and pila muralia ontop? Five, Maybe six? Was it the duty of a sentry to stop an attack or just slow it down long enough for the general alarm to be given and for additional forces to gather.

If at any given time, if 1/4 of soldiers were on duty during while in camp during hours of limited visibility, and if only x amount of soldiers were needed to guard the perimeter, then it seems that there was plenty of other guard responsibilities. What else was there? Roving tent guards for the century area, guarding the praetorium tent, (though maybe it was a tasking for special units such as extraordinari), guarding the tribune's tents, praefects, questor's tent, those of the legates, etc, gate guards for the four main camps?

What was the duty of officers during guard duty? Were there tribunes on duty? A centralized HQ guard position, such as an officer of the day?

Are we deviating too much from the topic at hand? Maybe a new topic is needed? "Guard Duty in Marching Camps"