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Marching camp construction
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(01-10-2019, 01:36 PM)MonsGraupius Wrote:
(01-10-2019, 08:21 AM)agrimensor Wrote: I am currently thinking on how its done.
as Roman  agrimensor and Proffesional surveyor it has my interest.
As fas as I know  the surveyor had 1/10 of the troops at his disposal and went in front of the main body of the legion.
He would get his info from scouts and the auxilary which would go even before him.
he had to make the decision where to camp by that info.

Although it's not been my main interest, given the topic is about setting out a camp, I started trying to work out what likely happened when troops arrived and therefore the priorities. I won't go into the detail but the key points are:

  1. The first priority is to work out where the defences are going. If terrain permits, this is a simple rectangle, otherwise it's as close as they can get given the terrain, but we get all different kinds of shapes, but usually four sided. The defences need to be marked by reference points. I think the most likely point is at the inner limit of the defences because everything outside of this can get disturbed as the defences are being built. It also means that troops can "muster" along the inside of this line as they arrive. Here they are out of the way of people building/surveying the camp and in a position to protect the camp as they form of human shield and ready to start working on defences.
  2. The next key point is the headquarters - which is where unit commanders go when they arrive (even if HQ just a bloke with a "clipboard"). On a four sided shape this could be located by the point where diagonals from the corners cross, or if there is a defined road through the location, it may have just been marked out to sit beside this "via principalis". This probably gets a very prominent marker and is quickly occupied by HQ staff even before there is any shelter for them.
  3. The next component needed is the "via principalis" which marks one side of the various HQ buildings, praetorian, hospital, granaries, etc. It's also the principle road so locates the main gates.
  4. The next priority is to mark the opposite side of the HQ which forms one side of  another street, and then to mark out the area of each "barrack" (or tent equivalent) and then the streets between them
This rough grid quickly defines the defences, the intervallum space and principle streets, which in turn locate the four gates. This marks out the principle components of the camp and creates a basic set of "arteries" that need to be kept unclogged to allow troops and equipment to move through the camp.

Thanks for responding, your thoughts on this are very interesting. I had initially wondered if during a march through a hostile area a decision would have been made to locate a camp whilst on route, (a sort of snap decision, here will do) it strikes me that sending out an advanced party to scout for a potential marching camp site would have been an extremely risky business, if for example the scouting party were spotted in a particular area, it could be an obvious sign that the main body of the army was heading in that general direction, another issue that I think would have been a problem is the distance between the chosen camp site and the main body of the army. If the camp is set too far away from the main force then that offers up the potential for an enemy to choose the best area for a sneaky attack. 
Im pretty sure that your description of planning and setting out the camp is spot on but it does all sound very time consuming, given your list of components required to complete the camp I imagine that the outer defences would have been of vital importance and would have been the first thing to be constructed, the rest would have been marked out and completed as time permitted.
 There must have been lookouts placed some considerable distance from the camp to give early warning of potential threats especially whilst the men were preoccupied with the construction of the camp. I suppose that we mustn’t forget that the Roman army were masters at moving through hostile territory and they would have had marching camp construction down to a fine art.
I wonder how many marching camps are yet to be discovered, I know through my own research that the Second Legion Augusta made their presence felt here in my home County of Somerset, they were responsible for forcibly moving a few tribal communities from their hillforts. Yesterday I visited the hill fort at Queen Camel and according to some sources the tribe that occupied that hill fort were attacked and removed by legion Augusta, I expect that somewhere, not to far from that hill fort there would have been a marching camp, the area that the legion would have travelled through to attack the hill fort was allegedly a stronghold for the Dobunni tribe.

(01-10-2019, 08:21 AM)agrimensor Wrote: I am currently thinking on how its done.
as Roman  agrimensor and Proffesional surveyor it has my interest.
As fas as I know  the surveyor had 1/10 of the troops at his disposal and went in front of the main body of the legion.
He would get his info from scouts and the auxilary which would go even before him.
he had to make the decision where to camp by that info.

Thank you, if you have any ideas or information on how the camp was marked out I’d be interested, any idea on how long it took to construct a marching camp?
Dave..Stug50
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Messages In This Thread
Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-09-2019, 11:27 AM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-09-2019, 04:25 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by agrimensor - 01-10-2019, 08:21 AM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-10-2019, 01:36 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-10-2019, 04:00 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-10-2019, 09:00 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-10-2019, 10:24 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-11-2019, 10:32 AM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-11-2019, 11:07 AM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-11-2019, 10:50 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-11-2019, 11:22 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-12-2019, 01:01 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-13-2019, 12:01 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-13-2019, 01:25 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by MonsGraupius - 01-13-2019, 06:00 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-13-2019, 07:01 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Nathan Ross - 01-13-2019, 07:45 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-13-2019, 08:37 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Steve Kaye - 01-15-2019, 01:49 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Stug50 - 01-15-2019, 09:39 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Mark Hygate - 01-15-2019, 08:02 PM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Mark Hygate - 01-16-2019, 10:55 AM
RE: Marching camp construction - by Damian Roe - 03-08-2019, 04:25 PM

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