fortress

• Legionary fortress

  The collection of buildings, surrounded by defensive features, that was the home for a legion when they were on active duty
• Principia

  HQ of the fortress, included a courtyard with a noticeboard, a meeting hall, offices for admin work, a small temple
• Praetorium

  Like a luxury villa in a legionary fortress, for the legatus to live
• Boundary

  • Rectangular shape, round corners
  • Surrounded by a 6m wide ditch and a high wall to slow invaders
  • Wall had lookout towers
  • 4x gates for entry/exit
• Via praetoria

  Main street from the main gate to the fortress HQ
• Via principalis

  Main street from one side gate to the other
• Via quintana


  Main street behind the main buildings
• Streets

  • Three main streets
  • Other smaller paths throughout the fortress on a grid layout
• Principia

  • HQ of the fortress
  • Included a courtyard with a noticeboard
  • Meeting hall
  • Offices for admin work
  • Small temple for the gods and to house the legion's aquila
  • Legate's accommodation (the praetorium - like a luxury villa)
• Hospital

  • For treating the sick and the mildly wounded
  • Wasn't equipped to deal with long-term recovery
  • Anything worse than a minor injury would usually result in death or an honourable discharge
• Workshops

  • Used to build things needed by the legion, including weapons, armour, furniture and other day-to-day items for the legion to use
• Granaries

  • Kept grain (the main staple of the legionary's diet) dry and safe
  • Good ventilation and sometimes pet cats were essential for protecting the grain
• Baths

  • Communal bathing was a core part of Roman social culture
  • Bathing together kept the legionaries clean and healthy, connected them to their Roman identity, and helped them to socialise with one another
• Latrines

  • Poor sanitation and failure to clean up feces could lead to disease, not to mention unpleasant smells
  • There were latrines throughout the fortress
  • These were like benches with holes in to be used as toilets
  • They were positioned above streams of running water to "flush" the waste away
• Barracks


  • Most of the space in the fortress was used for barracks
  • Arranged by cohort, then by century, then by contubernium
  • Each contubernium had two rooms: a bedroom and a communal space (living room/kitchen)
• Special Barracks

  • Officials, such as centurions, tribunes and the prefect had their own lodgings
  • These would be larger and more comfortable than those given to a standard legionary soldier
  • The First Cohort might also have had slightly larger barracks
• Stables

  • Horses were valuable commodities, and so needed to be protected by the walls of the fort
  • Stables were located inside the fort to keep the horses safe, fed and sheltered
• Drill Hall

  • Large hall where the legionaries could practice fighting techniques
• Prison

  • Small prison may have housed valuable hostages/prisoners of war, or even unruly legionaries
  • It wasn't for long prison sentences - very badly behaved legionaries would be punished in other ways
• Elliptical Building

  • To the right of the Principia on the diagram
  • Building in the shape of an oval (ellipsis)
  • Large structure (60x30 metres)
  • Comprised a central courtyard, with 12 rooms around the edge
  • Made of high quality stone
  • Purpose unknown - scholars have suggested it was a palace, a market, a weapons-training school or even a temple
  • Unique - other fortresses don't have one
• Amphitheatre

  • Outside the walls of the fort
  • Used for meetings of the whole legion (assemblies, parades), training, and entertainment (gladiator fights, theatre)
  • Could seat 8,000 at once