Roman camp building

[MonsGraupius]

Hello guys,

pretty straight-forward questions : did the roman army during the late republic build fortified camps on every spot they would stop for the night  ? And did they still build them when in "friendly territory" ? For instance on the 10th of january 49 bc, just before the 10th legion (is it the 10th ?) crossed the Rubicon, did they construct a fortified camp ? 

Thanks,
Vuk

Having studied the subject at length all I can really say with any certainty is that we don't know. However, it is possible to trace some lines of camps, and what is often intriguing is that they do not appear to start or end where expected. This may be because the "usual" starting places are now heavily populated areas where all traces of early camps have been obliterated by medieval ploughing and later housing - or it may be because there were no camps, but another possibility is that the form of camp changed to one that didn't leave any archaeological traces (i.e. no ditch).

However, perhaps as intriguing is what happened to the "occupants" of any site. After all, the roman legion moving around was a bit like a giant with huge feet hundreds of meters across - and any tree, animal or human caught under that foot would be annihilated (or at least have their property wrecked). That might be acceptable in enemy territory, but imagine finding enough space to put a camp without destroying homes in a friendly territory!