Aalen Fort and Cavalry Barracks

On December 8, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Cavalry, Fort, Roman GermanyLeave a comment

Overall *** 3 stars – a slice of a major fort, well set-out and explained, with a world-leading reconstruction

Roman features *** 3 stars – key buildings exposed, but much of fort sadly concealed, large Exercise Hall

Display *** 3 stars – good explanatory boards, replica statues and inscriptions, and a viewing platform

Reconstructions ***** 5 stars – the two-storey reconstructed barrack block really moves the debate forward!

Access *** 3 stars – access by sloping gravel paths, signs not multilingual

Atmosphere ***** 5 stars – for the barracks: really feel you were there (but could do with smells too!)

This latest post from our ‘Raetian Limes Adventure’ features the fort at Aalen. As noted in our previous blogpost, Aalen fort – as befits the base of the most important unit in the Province of Raetia – is the largest fort on the Raetian Limes at 6.07 ha. The largest Roman cavalry fort north of the Alps.

Unfortunately, the exposed part comprises only the central range but, given that this contains the HQ buildings, this alone is very interesting. The northern part of the fort was, alas, built over with housing in the 1920s and the southern part had already been filled by a cemetery.

There is a viewing platform above the exposed remains which gives you an excellent view of the HQ (principia), complete with a replica statue of xxxxx. On the path leading to this the Rotary Club of Aalen has thoughtfully provided replicas of some of the best stone finds from the Raetian Limes. There is a relief from a Mithraeum and a statue of the three Mother Goddesses.

The excavation of the principia was carried out by the Limes Commission before the First World War and has the limitations of the methods then available. Nevertheless the material finds, as exhibited in the Museum, are remarkable. Inscriptions to the Emperors start with Antoninus Pius, the date when the line of the Limes was moved forward in AD160. At that point the Ala II Flavia moved north from Heidenheim to Aalen where, curiously, they then constructed a complete replica of their previous fort just 30kms to the south! Aalen waw occupied until the collapse/evacuation of the Raetian Limes in AD254,

The principia was built on a massive scale (70m x 60m) to reflect the status of Ala II Flavia, with the typical suite of five rooms at the back where the remains of bronze statues of the Emperors were found (meticulously cut into minute pieces). There were also dedicatory altars and metal lettering from a lost inscription. The pride and grandeur of the unit really come across.

What we found most striking, though, is the enormous exercise hall calculated as being 18m high, for indoor training, briefings and displays.

The massive exercise hall – shades of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna!

East of the Principia is a large building interpreted as a workshop, but the really stunning and revolutionary exhibit in the Aalen fort is the reconstruction of part of a cavalry barracks.

There were 12 double cavalry barracks, each with two squadrons (turmae) in the fort at Aalen, and the Museum here has rebuilt the end of one of them. What is so interesting is that it is a two-storey reconstruction, based on meticulous excavations from Ala II Flavia’s previous base at Heidenheim.

Reconstruction of the Heidenheim Cavalry Barracks

We find this two-storey configuration convincing. Depending on your view on the size of each cavalry turma in a 1000-person cavalry regiment (ala milliaria) there were between 800 and 1,000 troopers in the fort with as many horses and probably as many remounts, plus grooms and slaves. (Who mucked out the titanic amounts of horse dung from the 1,000-plus horses?) The idea that the well-paid troopers chose to live above the stables (not crammed into a small room behind them) works well from the point of view of space, cleanliness and warmth.

The techniques for multi-storey buildings were, of course, well understood by Roman architects and ground space was at a premium inside the fort walls.

The Aalen reconstructions are carried through magnificently with the front room of downstairs housing replicas of the small but sturdy cavalry horses, in a stable complete with Latin graffiti. The back room is treated as an arms store and office. Up a precipitous stepladder is the sleeping room (which visitors sadly can’t access).

If this was the format of cavalry barracks at Aalen then we should surely expect to find them in other cavalry forts around the Empire, for instance at Chesters on Hadrian’s Wall. Indeed, Historic England is now suggesting that the barracks exposed by excavations there were probably two-storey too.

The excavations of the double back-to-back two storey barracks at Heidenheim

Limesmuseum Aalen

On December 1, 2019December 9, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Fort, Roman Germany, VicusLeave a comment

Overall: **** 4 stars – another excellent German Limes museum, focusing on the Raetian Limes and with outstanding finds. (Do this and Weißenburg.)

Roman features: **** 4 stars – superb collection of artefacts from Aalen and related sites.

Display – ***** 5 stars – brand-new museum displays, chock-full of interesting material with effective interpretative panels in German and English.

Reconstructions – N/A – but seethe wonderful cavalry barracks and adjacent fort site (see later blog).

Access – **** – 4 stars. Car parking outside (or on street), good access within building, bilingual displays, small friendly shop.

Atmosphere – ** 2 stars. Lively and well-attended but not strongly atmospheric.

On the Sunday after our visit to Weißenburg Museum, ever-enthusiastic gluttons for (Roman) punishment, we visited the Limesmuseum Aalen…

You are probably way ahead of us in realising that the name Aalen reflects its origin as the fort of Ala II Flavia, the premier unit in the Roman Province of Raetia. An Ala Milliaria was a 1,000 trooper strong cavalry unit, probably with twice as many remount steeds. There were only eight of these in the entire Empire, and the officers and troopers were all paid more than their equivalents in the mighty Legions. So Aalen was a very important place from AD160 to 260, when the Raetian Limes collapsed. Much later it regained its importance as a Free Imperial City in Eastern Baden-Württemberg.

The Museum

There has been a museum devoted to Roman Aalen and the Raetian Limes since 1964, and we have visited it twice before. It has just been upgraded (May 2019) by Baden-Württemberg, assisted by the local authorities and the Deutsche Limes Kommission (DLK). It’s fantastic to see the authorities both valuing their local heritage and seeing the tourist potential. There is an enormous flow of tourists in the summer ‘doing’ the Limes trails on foot and by bike. The Museum contains the best finds from the Baden-Württemberg section of the Raetian Limes.

Septimius Severus and his wife Julia Domna

The ambition of the new museum is large – it starts by setting the context of Roman imperialism with a forest of portrait busts (reproductions) of Emperors and their families. This provides as suitably awe-inspiring start. You then see a magnificent statue (another repro) of Trajan. Why Trajan? Well, the latest dating of the first version of the Lines is ‘early Trajanic’.

There is a typically confident statement about the purpose of the Limes:

“The Limes, however, was neither a military defensive position, nor a border in the modern sense, but a control line. From here Rome observed the movement of people and goods into its territory”.

One could argue for a long time about the purpose(s) of the Limes (defence, attack, control, customs etc) – but we think this is a pretty good start.

You then have a choice of route, since the Museum is a large square with a smaller square room inside it. We chose to go round the outside where there are areas devoted to themes in a logical sequence.

Artefacts from and reconstruction of a ‘native settlement’ in Raetia.

The Raetian Limes were only occupied around AD105-264: compare this 160 year span to the 340 years that the Hadrian’s Wall was occupied! Another remarkable difference from the British ‘Limes’ is that there was little population in Raetia and the Upper Danube area before the Roman occupation, whereas everywhere that has been examined beneath Hadrian’s Wall has shown traces of ploughing before construction bega

In the Roman Army, the Cavalry were, contrary to received wisdom, the real elite units in the Provinces: a Trooper (Eques) was paid 2,800 sestertii a year under Septimius Severus, compared with a Legionary (Miles Legionis) who received 2,400.

Samian Potery from the Vicus in front of a reconstruction.

The civil settlement (vicus) was the home of many immigrants from across the Empire, drawn by the wealth of the troopers and the opportunity for trade. There are interesting statistics on the food consumption of the 1,000 Troopers in the Ala Flavia, a neglected aspect of the impact of the Roman Army in most museums.

There are some amazing finds from the massive HQ (Principia) of Aalen including lettering from inscriptions and tiny cut-up pieces of what were once bronze statues of Emperors.

There is also a CV (cursus honorem) for one of the Ala Commanders which brings home how the Army managed the top talent serving on the Wall in Britain as in Raetia, Africa and in Rome. And finally, a striking display of 5 sports helmets (even beating Weißenburg’s 3!)

To anyone interested in the Roman army, and the cavalry especially, this is a fabulous display of treasures, done in an informative and spacious way. To our minds, one of the cleverest elements in each room are the wall-height recreations of what the places being described actually looked like. All done very accurately – the only minor niggle is the unlikely cleanliness of the roads in the vicus of a cavalry fort (see above), with thousands of horses – let alone all the pack animals…

The construction of the Raetian Limes, brought to life in the galleries.

After all this brilliance, the room in the centre is something of a disappointment, at least to us (although we know some visitors really like it). It aims to bring the life of the garrison, the vicus and the area to life by audio-visual.

Next, you go upstairs where there is an exhibit on the Raetian Limes in a beautiful large white-painted room with a central courtyard open to the sky. Around the walls are almost life-sized photographs of the Limes sites today flanked by line recreations of what they looked like originally. This, in our view, works brilliantly well.

What works less well is a touchscreen map with coloured lights showing the way the Roman Frontier in Upper Germany and Raetia (now Baden-Württenberg and Bayern) has evolved: it had already broken, as museum technology often does.

Finally, there are some remarkable remains from a well into which an innkeeper had lowered his complete set of working materials when the Frontier collapsed. Cauldrons, containers and all were found in the remains of a net, hidden so that he would be able to retrieve them on his return after the Limes were restored. But they remained there until archaeologists found them in the modern era…

Weissenburg Introduction and Museum

On November 24, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Fort, Museum, Roman Germany, VicusLeave a comment

Introduction

We wanted to get away somewhere Roman for the weekend – so what better place to go than the Raetian Limes in Southern Germany? We flew to Munich, then drove to Weißenburg on Saturday and Aalen on the Sunday, which gave us five interesting – indeed outstanding – sites to review. So here’s our first review: the Limes Centre and Museum in Weißenburg.

We first visited Weissenburg’s Roman sites in 1991, just after they had opened the cover building for the baths and built a reconstruction of the north gate. In fact, it was a picture of that gate in all its glory, illustrating a brochure of B&Bs in Southern Germany, which originally attracted us to visit Weißenburg.

The Lutheran Church with Martin Luther Statue.

Weißenburg is a prosperous small manufacturing town in Middle Franconia, now part of Northern Bavaria, with a beautifully preserved historic centre, nice cafés and a remarkable Roman history. It was one of those fascinating micro-states – a free Imperial City from the late Middle Ages until Napoleon ended the Holy Roman Empire.

Biriciana was one of the largest forts on the Raetian Limes, the land frontier stretching from the Danube at Eining, running roughly along the watershed, and meeting the north/south Upper German Limes at Lorch. The fort – 3 hectares in size – was garrisoned from Trajanic times by the Ala I Hispanorum, a cavalry unit of approximately 500 troopers.

There are three Roman Sites to see in Weißenburg:

The fort site with reconstructed gate
The Baths
The Museum and Limes Visitor Centre.

There’s so much to enjoy – so we will just cover the Museum here and then post separately on the Fort and the Baths.

The Museum

Overall: **** 4 stars – Excellent Limes Museum focusing on the Raetian Limes, with outstanding finds from the Weißenburg vicus. A must-see if you are in Bavaria.

Roman Features: **** 4 stars – The impact of the display of votives had stuck with us from 1991! Nowhere we know of has something like this and the statuettes are also unique – and here we are right on the edge of the Roman World!

Display: **** 4 stars – Very good (with just one nitpick – the spotlights on the votives were out of order, meaning the silver does not currently gleam as it does in our memories!) The other finds, including the helmets, are well displayed and the explanation of the context of the Raetian Limes and its garrison is outstanding.

Reconstructions: * 1 star – The ground floor auxiliaries are dressed up manikins (which is always slightly weird) and the perspex models are fine but don’t add much to one’s understanding.

Access: *** 3 stars – A well-converted historic building with a lift. Some display areas dark (for atmosphere). Captions mainly in German (unlike some Limes sites). No obvious parking nearby.

Atmosphere: **** 4 stars – The top floor displays are highly atmospheric.

Other *** 3 stars – There is some useful material on the Raetian Limes on the ground floor. The Museum has just published a top-notch guide (in German) to its collections which has fine photos graphs, maps and graphics; which add context. There is the usual rack of leaflets on other Roman sites, but not as much as we had hoped for.

You really have to see Weißenburg if you can!

Since we visited in 1991, the Museum has greatly expanded and secured recognition as the Bavarian Limes Visitor Centre. This has resulted in some expensive (but not particularly informative) displays on the ground floor, with the obligatory manikins dressed up as Roman auxiliary cavalry and infantry. There are some rather nice site models. But the reason you are here is upstairs – it amazed us nearly 30 years ago and amazed us again now!

We had very high expectations about this latest visit, having last been here in 1991 – attracted by the reconstructed Gate, then a bit of an exotic rarity even in Germany! A lasting memory was the display of silver votives of great delicacy shining in their display cases in a rather quaint and (back in those days) seemingly low security museum.

Weißenburg Fort was founded as a cavalry fort, probably in Trajan’s reign when the frontier moved north from the Danube to the watershed between the Danube and the Main. (Intriguingly, this is where Charlemagne planned the first canal to connect the Rhine and Danube.). Together with the whole Raetian frontier, Weißenburg fell – or was given up – in 264AD. During its occupation, an extensive vicus grew up on the west side with a major set of baths to serve the well-paid Auxiliary Cavalry troopers – more about this site in a later blog.

Some of the contents of the buried horde, viewed from above.

That the abandonment of the Limes and their forts was a sudden, violent and dramatic occurrence is shown by the deposit of many valuable objects in a box buried in the main street of the Vicus. Fortunately the contents of the box weren’t found until 1979 when the votives, statuettes and other objects were scientifically excavated and preserved. There are various theories about the reason for it being there – temple offerings, everybodies’ valuables or even a trader’s stock in trade.

These finds form the star exhibits at the Weißenburg Museum where the three top rooms on the 3rd floor display the votives and statues with dramatic lighting. The first room contains displays about the campaigns of the 3rd Century and the demonstrate of the Raetian Limes in 254AD.

The three sports helmets with face-masks in the central room are particularly striking and well displayed. The Roman cavalry auxiliaries practised evolutions like the Cantabrian Circle using sports equipment – face masks like these and spears without heads – to demonstrate their skills. The ‘teams’ were thought to be Trojans, Alexander and Amazons. These convey the wealth, sophistication and effortless superiority of the Roman cavalry. As in the 19th Century these cavalry regiments clearly saw themselves as superior to the auxiliary infantry and, indeed, all ranks of a cavalry Ala received about a third more pay than their equivalent in a Roman Legion!

These are high-quality finds from the Hoard.

The room on the right, with subdued lighting, contains all the pots and pans that were found in the buried chest with the helmets. These are also of the finest quality and in a wonderful state of preservation, and show the very high level of material culture in the vicus of Biriciana. You surely would not put these items in the ground if you had some way to take them with you – so the strong inference must be that the Roman citizens of Biriciana had very little time to leave when the end came!

The room on the left contains the votives and statuettes in an almost religious display. They do not disappoint!

The religious atmosphere of the Room with the statuettes and votives

The statuettes are of Roman household gods and – given we are here on the very edge of the Empire – they are of staggering quality and delicacy. The feature Venus, Juno, Vulcan, Mercury and other members of the Roman pantheon.

The votives are, for us, the stars of the show, largely because we have never seen their equal in quantity and quality. They are of extreme delicacy, made out of beaten silver alloy, and appear to have been dedicated in the household shrine for particular events or in thanksgiving.

As a build-up to this dramatic climax, galleries set out the history of the Limes with some excellent graphics on the forts occupied in 160AD and their garrisons.

Replica of the Battle Helmet found at Theilenhofen, east of Weißenburg on the Raetian Limes.

Other galleries feature key finds from the forts at Weißenburg displayed in thematic form – the soldiers’ equipment and armour, the countryside, and other topics. It’s all done very well and spaciously.

This the large display of the Raetian Limes in 160AD filling one Wall.

The only disappointment is the ground floor where there are displays about World Heritage Sites – the Limes, like Hadrian’s Wall, is one – and lifesize auxiliary infantry and cavalryman, plus some perspex models of key sites which somehow don’t quite come to life.

The Model of the North Gate of Weißenburg Fort

The Limes book shop is just nearby in an excellent combined café and bookshop. There you can enjoy a Bavarian chocolate and cream cake and a coffee whilst contemplating the modern statue of Martin Luther outside the Church. (No mistaking which side the Imperial City of Weißenburg was on in the Reformation.)

Housesteads Roman Fort

On July 27, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Fort, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall Impact **** 4 stars – Housesteads has ‘star quality’, given its position atop the crags and on a slope that faces you as you approach.

Access ** 2 stars – it’s a long trudge up from the National Trust carpark, although it provides spectacular views of the fort in its context (although disabled parking at the top of the hill can be arranged at the information centre for those who require it). It can be windy and uneven underfoot.

Atmosphere ***** 5 stars – it’s not difficult to imagine you are a one of the Tungrian soldiers stationed there, gazing out into the drizzle to spot raiders or smugglers!

Other ** 2 stars – the famous latrine provides a good source of lavatorial humour for children of all ages!

For many people, Housesteads is the quintessential Roman auxiliary fort and it is definitely ‘the fort to see’ on Hadrian’s Wall. However, as always, when you dig into things with the Roman Army, it’s not quite that simple…

Housesteads was one of the forts built as a result of the ‘Fort Decision’ in around AD124 when the Roman High Command decided that – instead of a thinly-held ‘curtain’ along the new frontier with turrets and milecastles communicating with forts in the rear along the Stanegate Road – it was necessary to man the border with troops of all kinds, ready to be deployed forward aggressively. At the same time, probably, the decision was taken to narrow the wall from a massive 10ft to 6ft. Wall expert David Breeze estimates that troops on the front line increased from c3,750 to c11,000.

Panorama views looking north from the wall of Housesteads Fort

Part of that deployment was the deployment of a thousand-strong infantry cohort (Cohors Peditata Milliaria) to Housesteads. This involved the knocking down of a part-constructed turret which can be seen in the northern part of the fort, outside the granaries and just inside the fort wall which was then pushed as far towards the edge of the cliffs as possible, making the North Gate meaningless and purely decorative. But they still built it – after all, this is the Roman Army!

English Heritage have provided excellent reconstructions to bring the site to life.

Since it contained 10 centuries of 80 men each (800 in total), the fort is larger than normal at 2.2 hectares. There were 10 infantry barrack blocks: 5 west of the central range and 5 east, each row containing an additional workshop building. In the central range, stood the usual HQ (Principia), this time facing east along the long axis, with two substantial granaries to the north, and a magnificent house (Praetorium) for the Commander and his family, with a Hospital behind. All of these were built on a steeply sloping site, exposed to the frequent wind and rain of the Northumberland weather. So the ‘poor bloody infantry’ got Housesteads Crags, whilst the better-paid elite cavalry got the bucolic pleasures of Chesters in the North Tyne Valley.

The twin Granaries from the original Hadrianic fort, subsequently modified and knocked together.

We don’t know which unit was lucky enough to get this windy posting: clearly being ready at short notice to deploy aggressively north of the Wall was vital – why else put them here? However, along with the rest of the Wall, all this site was dismantled or moth-balled after Hadrian’s death in AD138, and Antoninus Pius’ decision to move the frontier forward to the Clyde-Forth Isthmus and to what become the Antonine Wall. So could we look on the 50 years of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus from AD117 to 167 – far from being the Golden Age of the Roman Army – as being instead an era at least of indecision and waste of effort, or even of failure?

When the Army came back to the Wall in the early AD160s, the Housesterads garrison was the Cohors I Tungrorum which by now had a complement of 800 infantry. Originally recruited as auxiliaries from the native Tungri of Belgica, they had been stationed at Vindolanda in the late 1st Century, and by the AD180s would have become thoroughly local on the Wall. They were augmented by barbarian irregular infantry from ‘free’ Germany (Numerus Hnaudfridi) and cavalry from Frisia (Cuneus Frisiorum), presumably recruited to provide a certain ‘barbaric’ edge to the Tungrians’ regular tactics.

Amazingly, the Tungrians were still there at Housesteads by the time of the Notitia Dignitatum in the late 4th Century. However, by then the neat barrack blocks had been divided up into what have been somewhat weirdly named ‘chalets’, one replacing each previous set of contubernia rooms. Some people think this reflects the decline of the Roman Army, with families moving into the ‘chalets’ along with the soldiers. But at Housesteads there is very little evidence for this happening (unlike at Vindolanda), so the reason for the rebuild remains unclear.

Visiting the Site

You stand a good chance at Housesteads of being blown away, drenched or at best slightly dampened by the Gods of the Northumbrian Weather. However, there is plenty exposed on the site from different periods which is well worth seeing.

Rather excellent model of Housesteads Fort as built.

The best plan is to visit the Museum (housed in the old farm buildings) on your way onto the site. Here are some key finds from the fort plus a really good model of the fort as it was built in the AD120s and some excellent pictorial reconstructions of the whole fort and its key buildings. What is most striking is how the Roman architects did not let the sloping nature of the site get in the way of laying out the regulation plan; and how much effort was put into constructing a multi-storey Commander’s House with a central courtyard – great in the Mediterranean but probably a source of flooding up here.

Badge of Office – possibly of a *Beneficarius Consularis* an official on the Governor’s Staff – in the Housesteads Museum

It is worth then visiting the (pointless) North Gate to look over into the Barbarian lands and a view for miles north, and to gaze west and east along the Wall that bestrides the crags. And in the north-east quadrant you can see the ‘chalets’ laid out in their irregular plans.

As a final treat, everyone visits the south-east corner to marvel at the Roman latrines, which were flushed by the plentiful rainfall at Housesteads. Apparently, though, the plumbing is not so clever and effective as it looks…

South Shields Roman Fort

On July 24, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Fort, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall Impact **** 4 stars – One of the most unusual Roman forts to be found in Britain. Started off quite normal but then became the supply base for Septimius Severus’ campaigns in Scotland and thereafter for the garrison of Hadrian’s Wall – unique!

Access *** 3 stars – One of Tyne and Wear Museum Service flagship sites, Arbeia is well branded and signed. There is parking outside plus extensive beach-side car parks. (It takes some time to drive to South Shields from Newcastle, however, either through the Tyne Tunnel or by heading south down the A1 and then back up.)

Atmosphere ***** 5 stars – The Fort feels special: it has been a “People’s Roman Park” since the 1870s when the central area was exposed, and the 3 amazing reconstructions (the West Gate from AD160s, 3rd century barracks and 4th century Commander’s House) are very evocative.

Other **** 4 stars – Don’t miss the two high-quality tombstones of Regina and Victor probably carved by a Syrian craftsman in the small Museum. (The Bookshop sadly did not, however, seem to include a current Guidebook to the site when we were there.)

The tombstones of Regina (on the left) and Victor (right).

One of the most unusual forts – well worth making the effort to visit, in the Hadrian’s Wall Region or Complex but definitely not ‘on the Wall’, is South Shields or ‘Arbeia’ as it is branded at the site and on signposts.

The brightly painted Courtyard of the Commander’s House from the 4th Century.

It was built as part of the Antonine re-occupation of the Tyne-Solway line in the early 160s and is a ‘bog standard’ auxiliary fort for a Cohors Equitata Quingenaria). In the middle range stands the Headquarters (Principia), facing north, with a pair of granaries to the west and the Commander’s House (Praetorium) to the east. In front of them there appear to be 6 barrack blocks (6 x 80 men = 480 infantry) and behind there are 4 cavalry barracks with urine pits for the horses in the front rooms of the conturbernia (4 x 30 = 120 troopers), housing a total of 600 troops. It feels like the twin of Wallsend built in the late AD130s and reoccupied at the same time as South Shields in the AD160s.

South Shields gets really interesting in AD207 when the fort is converted into a supply base for Septimius Severus’ campaigns in Caledonia. The fort is extended to the south and a dividing wall erected across the middle. The old Principia is demolished and a new smaller one, now facing south, is built. The barracks are removed and an amazing 13 new granaries are built which, with the two existing ones, gives 15. The poor old garrison unit Cohors V Gallorum is therefore jammed into the southern half of the site in shortened barrack blocks.

The exceptionally large Strongroom in the Principia – the largest in Britain – presumably for storing the pay chests arriving for the Wall garrisons.

This scheme is never finished and the dividing wall is knocked down, still more granaries built, bringing the total to 22, and some more barracks are crammed into the south-east corner.

South Shields continued as a Supply Base for the Army on Hadrian’s Wall after the departure of Septimius Severus and his son (and fellow Augustus) Caracalla. Another new Principia was built and some short barracks replaced the previous ones. This role continued during the 3rd Century with grain imported from northern Gaul. Interestingly in the Notitia Dignitatum from the late 4th Century the garrison is a unit of Tigris Boatmen or Bargemen from present-day Iraq). It is an attractive theory to see these troops arriving with Septimius to transport grain and supplies up the coast to the Army in the north and staying to distribute supplies up the Tyne to the Wall garrison afterwards. Severus had previously been campaigning in the East and had created the new Province of Mesopotamia with its frontier on the Tigris. The name Arbeia is thought to be a version of ‘Arabia’ relating to this deployment. The freedwoman Regina, whose tombstone was found in the civilian settlement (vicus) here, was the wife of Barates from Palymra. Barates himself is thought to be buried at Corbridge (Coria) behind the Wall.

A disastrous fire around AD300 destroyed the fort, cause unknown. In the resultant rebuilding, eight of the granaries in the south were converted into barrack blocks, each with space for 5 conturbernia (5 x 8 men = 40), housing a total of around 320 men. The Commanding Officer of this unit – and this may be when the Tigris Bargemen were in fact deployed here – had a large, even palatial, Praetorium complete with integral bath suite and both summer and winter dining rooms. Arbeia seems to have functioned as the supply base for the Wall through the 4th Century until the breakdown of the imperial pay- and supply-chains in the early 5th century. It may well have become a centre of royal Northumbrian power thereafter.

Reconstructions

So, for everyone interested in Roman forts, this complex evolution is ridiculously interesting. And now you can add to that the three – yes, three – unique reconstructions that Paul Bidwell and the Tyne and Wear Museums Team have built.

Fort Gateway

The reconstructed West Gate leading to the presumed docks, originally built c160AD.

The West Gateway has been reconstructed on its foundations to its full imposing height, something which is quite common along the German Limes but scarcely ever happens in Britain. Opened in 1988, faithfully reflecting the stone fragments found on site and using Northumbrian stone externally, it brings home to visitors and school parties just how imposing a Roman fort was in the landscape. The new version has weathered its 30 years in the Tyneside climate very well.

Barrack Block

The reconstructed barrack block is one of the new types of the 3rd Century with 5 contubernia plus officers’ quarters at one end. Unlike the robust Gate, the barracks building brings home to modern eyes what a rotten, cold and often soaking wet life a Roman auxiliary led. It is built of clay-bonded stone and mud plaster coated with limewash, with internal partitions of wattle and daub. If the unit was up to strength then these rooms would have been crowded with up to 8 men and all their kit, and smoke-filled from cooking and heating. The reproductions – probably like the originals – are not surviving well in the Tyneside weather, with plaster flaking off.

A crowded rear room in one of the *conturbernia*.

Commander’s House from the 4th Century

Next door to the crumbling barracks is a recreation (on the original foundations) of the unique Commander’s House from the 4th Century. It is decorated with tremendous panache and joie de vivre in bright colours with what to modern eyes look like naive fake painted marble and portraits of the Emperor. This suggests at what you could achieve even in the the far north-west of the Empire with local craftsmen.

The portico leading to the Summer Dining Room.

There are store rooms, the Commander’s study, two bedrooms, a vast summer dining room and a painted courtyard. Yet this still leaves the winter dining room, with extra heating, and the bath suite not reconstructed! Only the top man and his family lived in such luxury…

The Commander’s House is showing some wear and tear, but its impact is still like no other reconstruction we have seen. Interestingly, the reproduction Roman tiles (tegulae et imbrices), manufactured specially in Italy, let in the rain – given how they were first fitted – leading to the collapse of the painted ceiling in the dining room!

Museum

In the small but good Museum there are two high-quality tombstones probably carved by a Syrian craftsman. They are both rightly famous and provoke so many questions about the nature of society and relationships in Roman Britain. One is to Regina, a freedwoman and the wife of Barates – he was from Palmyra, she was from the Catuvellauni living around St Albans. The second is to Victor who died at 20, a former Moorish slave freed by Numerianus of the Ala I Asturum who arranged his funeral ‘with all devotion’. There is also a good range of other finds from the site.

Chesters Fort

On July 23, 2019 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Fort, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall Impact: **** 4 stars – One of the best ways to get a feel for a ‘standard’ Roman auxiliary fort: you can examine the gates, Principia and baths and understand how they worked.

Access ***** 5 stars – As a prime English Heritage Hadrian’s Wall site, it is well signposted from both directions, with the AD122 bus stop plus ample car parking space, and good visitor facilities. Most areas of the site are easily walkable.

Atmosphere ** 2 stars – In the absence of anything other than walls and information signs, you need to use your imagination to recreate the fort. But there are good children’s activities which help with that.

Other *** 3 stars – Clayton Museum at the site has been beautifully restored to its nineteenth-century splendour. As a bonus, across the River North Tyne is the surviving bridge abutment.

The ‘Matres’ in an inscription in the Clayton Museum

Chesters (Roman Cilurnum) was one of the forts built on the line of Hadrian’s Wall when the original conception of a wall composed of milecastles and turrets was abandoned and the decision was taken to move forts from the Tyne Valley forward to the line of the Wall itself. Given that the Wall was begun in AD122, Chesters therefore dates from a few years thereafter: English Heritage plump for a date of AD124. The ditch in front of the Wall was filled in and a turret that had just been built (or at least started) on the site was demolished.

Statue of Juno Dolichena, consort of Jupiter Dolichenus, standing on a heifer, wearing Eastern garb – the cult originated in Syria. Statue is in the Clayton Museum and was found at Chexters.

The original Hadrianic garrison was Ala Augusta ob virtutem appellata, that is, the Cavalry Wing or Regiment Awarded the Title Augusta for its Valour. As a cavalry regiment it was one of the most prestigious units on the Wall, and had landed a delightful billet beside the River North Tyne in what was probably, then as now, a fertile and attractive spot. A cavalry ala had 16 squadrons (turmae) of 32 men and their horses.

Probably abandoned or mothballed during the move forward in the Antonine period, by AD178-84 the fort garrison was Ala II Asturum, a cavalry wing originally raised in Northwest Spain who were there throughout the remaining lifetime of the fort into the 4th Century. At this period the buildings inside the fort were completely rebuilt. Interestingly, there seems not to have been space inside the fort for the 16 barracks needed for the 16 Squadrons of an ala: either the Ala II Asturum only had 12, or perhaps the remainder were on detached duties elsewhere in the Province and only rotated through Chesters?

The late 2nd and early 3rd Century were the heyday of Chesters with a large civil settlement (vicus) to the South and many inscriptions raised. However, the nature of the fort would have completely changed over the period AD250 to 350 with the vicus largely disappearing and the civilians moving into the Fort. The garrison would have been drawn from the sons of serving soldiers as was compulsory in the Late Empire. An inscription from AD286 refers to irregular troops (symmacharii) also being present at Chesters.

Principal Visible Remains

Excavations were carried out by landowner John Clayton in the 19th Century, so what we have are the surviving walls plus the inscriptions and sculptures now displayed in the charming Museum. Four Hadrianic gates excavated by Clayton (out of the total of six) are exposed: the original double entrances were not needed, or were too insecure, and one of them was blocked early in all cases. Was this to facilitate security checks on those passing through, or due to a realisation that the ability to deploy horsemen quickly through three double gateways north of the Wall was not in fact needed?

The South Gate with double arches, one comprehensively blocked.

The Hadrianic headquarters building (Principia) is large, as befits an elite Ala, and gives a good impression of what a fort HQ was like, with the vault of the strongroom, opening off the central Shrine of the Standards, still surviving. The layout of the Commander’s House (Praetorium) defeats explanation and will continue to do so, given when and how it was excavated. However, the Commander clearly enjoyed his own bath suite.

The Arch of the Strong Room opening off the Shrine of the Standards in the *Principia* at Chesters.

Most of the rest of the interior is unexcavated. The key visible remains are the two opposing barrack blocks. Based on comparison with German forts and excavations at Wallsend, these are now seen as two-storey buildings. The current view is that there were 10 contubernia which each housed 3 horses in the front room and their riders in the back room (although we prefer the idea that the men slept upstairs, leaving equipment and possibly grooms in the back room). This would allow for 30 men and riders in a squadron (turma), with their commander (optio) and the Standard Bearer in the larger end rooms.

View of the Baths from up the slope towards the Fort – River North Tyne in the background.

The star surviving remains are the garrison Baths, between the fort and the river. They are Hadrianic but heavily modified They famously have niches (possibly for clothes) in the large changing room, plus a surviving base of a window, stone channels with lead seals still remaining, and a latrine on the riverside. These bath would have been a welcome luxury for the elite soldiers stationed at Chesters.