01-24-2012, 04:56 PM
Pat Southern, in The Late Roman Army, describes the site at Ermelo as 'the sole example of a late Roman marching camp'. However, as pointed out on Fectio, Ermelo has now been redated to cAD170 - not all that 'late'.
Ammianus Marcellinus mentions field encampments in his descriptions of the Gallic campaigns of Julian, so presumably the Roman army were still building them. But would they have been the same as those constructed by the army of the principiate? Why, if we discount Ermelo, have no remains been found? The later army often relied on billeting in settled areas, but there were plenty of cross-border campaigns. Might it be possible that some known camps - in north Britain and Scotland, for example - date from the post-Severan period? Or might it be that the encampments of the later army were in some way different, and left less of a mark on the landscape?
:?:
Ammianus Marcellinus mentions field encampments in his descriptions of the Gallic campaigns of Julian, so presumably the Roman army were still building them. But would they have been the same as those constructed by the army of the principiate? Why, if we discount Ermelo, have no remains been found? The later army often relied on billeting in settled areas, but there were plenty of cross-border campaigns. Might it be possible that some known camps - in north Britain and Scotland, for example - date from the post-Severan period? Or might it be that the encampments of the later army were in some way different, and left less of a mark on the landscape?
:?:
Nathan Ross
