camps

camps
When Polybius (6. 27–32) described the construction of a military camp (castra) c.143 BC, he was referring to a well-established practice. Livy, writing of 294 BC, assumes the existence of a fixed layout, without explaining it (10. 32. 9). The invention of castrametation by the Romans was probably connected with orientation, town planning, and land division, which themselves were associated with augural practices. Land division, with its careful delineation of areas and use of boundary lines intersecting at right angles, was well suited to military planning. Roman camp-building techniques emphasize the professionalism of their military establishment.

Archaeological and aerial surveys have revealed about 400 marching-camps in Britain, generally square or oblong in shape, protected by a ditch and rampart of turves surmounted by a palisade, and with at least four...

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