Small unit camps?

[D B Campbell]

What is the smallest known Roman 'marching camp'?

Sounds like a pub quiz question. :wink: (You're not in a pub just now, Nathan, ... are you?)

There are potentially two easy answers to this, I know - the first being that the Roman army did not commonly move around in hostile areas in anything less than cohort strength; the second would be that forts and fortified positions were established along roads that could offer temporary accomodation to smaller units in transit.

I think you're probably right on the first score. On the second score, Antonine road-fortlets (a term that I have just invented to make it clear that the fortlets in question lie beside a major road!) often have sizeable annexes tacked on. One likely reason would be to offer secure accommodation to troops or traffic in transit. (I vaguely recall having previously posted a plan of Oxton fortlet, one of my favourites.)

However, there surely must have been situations where smaller military groups would need to camp in the open - parties of new recruits or reinforcements in frontier areas, conveyed by a centurion or optio, or bodyguard groups for travelling officials or envoys to foreign powers. Some of these groups could feasibly consist of a centuria, a single turma, or less. Would they too build a camp?

No idea. Your travelling officials are supposed to have stopped off at mansiones. There's a nice mansio at Vindolanda. (I can recommend the wine list. :wink: ) Small groups are maybe less likely to have been wandering around beyond the frontier.

I doubt there's any actual evidence, archaeological or literary, for this, ...

Which brings us back to your small camps. Brian's camps -- Sills Burn North and Sills Burn South, near High Rochester -- are roughly 2ha (= 5 acres). As you said, Brian, they are still upstanding, and have never been excavated (as far as anyone knows!).

If we're looking for smaller, there's a group of roughly 1.5ha (3 [sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub] acres) camps in the vicinity of the Antonine Wall (e.g. Easter Cadder, Polmonthill, Twechar). Because of their proximity to the frontier works, they are thought to have been "construction camps" for the squads building the Wall.

I'm not sure of the story behind Alverdiscott in Devon (allegedly 1.5ha). Perhaps our Devon correspondent might comment? :wink:

Edit: Tiniest camp found? Bishop Rigg near Corbridge (0.5ha = 1 [sup]1[/sup]/[sub]3[/sub] acres), thought to be a labour camp for a road-building squad.

Edit 2: Absolutely tiniest camp found! Sandford, 3.5 miles NW of Brough on the A66. Allegedly 180 x 100 ft (it was recorded in 1950 and disappeared from human ken!) which makes it 0.16ha ([sup]2[/sup]/[sub]5[/sub] acre). I wonder if this is Nathan's small group of recruits, lost on the way to Carlisle! :wink: (I'm going to stop looking now.)