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Some Notes on Polybius's Description of Roman Camps

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Ernst Fabricius
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Extract

In no other part of the Roman empire are preserved so many camps and forts of Roman troops, in none is the preservation of their remains in general so excellent as in Great Britain. Nowhere else was the survey of these monuments undertaken so early, and nowhere else has their excavation been pursued with such perseverance and care down to the present day. But nevertheless the material to be examined is by no means exhausted. We may hope that by the further systematic exploration of Roman camps and forts in England and Scotland other countries may be greatly helped in the appreciation of these monuments.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1: Papers Dedicated to Sir George MacDonald K.C.B. , 1932 , pp. 78 - 87
Copyright
Copyright ©Ernst Fabricius 1932. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

page 78 note 1 The Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain (published by the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1793), pp. 41–46.

page 78 note 2 Roy at first assumed quite correctly that the strength of the auxiliary cavalry attached to a Roman legion was 900 men, three times that of the Roman cavalry; he further rightly maintained his opinion against that of Schele, who supposed the auxiliary horse to have been only twice the Roman (cf. p. 44 with p. 192). It must be noted that Schele's opinion was known to Roy only later. He replaced however his first original drawing of plate xliv by a second one in order to illustrate both opinions in fig. i, A and B (see George, , Macdonald, , ‘General William Roy and his Military Antiquities of the Romans in North-Britain,’ Archaeologia lxviii, 1917, p. 205).Google Scholar

page 79 note 1 The plan of the Polybian camp in Roy's work, pl. iv, is one of the best reconstructions known to me. Only the space for the forum and the quaestorium is too small, but the main dimensions are perfectly correct.

page 79 note 2 A list of the earlier literature is given in Marquardt, and von Domaszewski, , Römische Staatsverwaltung, ii (Handbuch der röm. Alterthümer, ed. 1884, vol. v, p. 405).Google Scholar Other accounts have been published later: among them the following may be especially mentioned—Oxé, A., ‘Die ältest Truppenverteilung im Neusser Legionslager’, Bonner jahrbücher, 118, 1909, p. 76–84Google Scholar; Stolle, F., Das Lager und Heer der Römer, Strassburg, 1912, p. 52–68Google Scholar; Fischer, W., Das römische Lager insbesondere nach Livius, Leipzig, 1914Google Scholar; and Schulten, A., Numantia, iv. 1929, pp. 119–126.Google Scholar

page 80 note 1 See Roy, map V, fig. IId.

page 80 note 2 ‘La militia Romana di Polibio, di Tito Livio, e di Dionigi Alicarnasso, da Francesco Patricii dichiarata,’ Ferrara 1583, fol. 64 rev. The work, translated in Latin, is also in Graevius, , Thesaurus Antiqu. Rom. vol. x (comp. p. 943–944).Google Scholar

page 80 note 3 Lipsii, JustiDe militia Romana libri quinque (Antverpiae 1630), p. 254.Google Scholar

page 80 note 4 ‘Hygini gromatici et Polybii de castris Romanis quae exstant,’ in Graevius, , Thes. x, p. 1163–1165.Google Scholar

page 80 note 5 The Military Antiquities p. 51: ‘But perhaps this last method was only made use of, for the mutual convenience of both armies, at times when no enemy was near, nor any danger to be apprehended.’

page 81 note 1 For στρατόπεδον in the sense of exercitus, see vi, c. 39, 11; c. 41, 10; c. 42, 6; in the sense of castra for example c. 33, 11 and 37, 9.

page 81 note 2 Op. cit. fol. 64 rev. (p. 943 in the Latin translation).

page 81 note 3 Op. cit. p. 255.

page 81 note 4 Animadversionum ad Graec. auct. tom. iv, p. 453.

page 81 note 5 Nissen, Templum p. 50–51.

page 81 note 6 Op. cit. p. 417 not 3.

page 81 note 7 Op. cit. p. 51.

page 81 note 8 Op. cit. p. 74.

page 82 note 1 ‘Plinianae exercitationes,’ in Solini, Polyhistoria (ed. 1689), i, p. 472.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 Op. cit. p. 1163–1165.

page 82 note 3 F. Stolle, op. cit. p. 52–68 and A. Oxé, op. cit. p. 78–79; also Schulten op. cit. p. 120.

page 84 note 1 This point of view has been asserted chiefly by W. Fischer in the book mentioned, p. 79, n. 2.

page 84 note 2 Numantia, vol. iv, p. 116.

page 84 note 3 Op. cit, p. 121, with the plan, pl. iv and xvii. Reductions of this plan have been published several times, for instance on Kromayer-Veith, Schlachten-Atlas, Röm. Abt. fol. 12, and Heerwesen und Kriegführung der Griechen und Römer, 1928, pl. 43, fig 131.

page 85 note 1 To this event may have contributed the fact that in the original arrangement the space near the praetorium became too small for the cohors amicorum which usually accompanied commanders-in-chief after the time of Scipio's Numantine war; cf. W. Fischer, op. cit. p. 47.

page 85 note 2 Above, p. 78.

page 85 note 3 ‘Novaesium,’ Bonner Jahrbücher 111–112, 1904, p. 21–26.

page 85 note 4 W. Fischer, op. cit. p. 178–184.

page 86 note 1 c. 24, 4: τῶν γροσϕομάχων τοὺς ὲπιβάλλοντας κατι τὸ πλῆθος ισονς έπι πάντα τὰ μέῥη διένειμαν

page 86 note 2 Op. cit. p. 44.

page 86 note 3 c. 35, 5: τὴν δʹ έκτὸς έπιϕάνειαν οί γροσϕομάχοι πληροῦσι, παρʹ ὃλον καθʹ ὴμέραν τὸν άρακα παρακοιτοῦντες—ἀὓτη γὰρ έπιτέτακται τούτοις ἡ λειτουργία The verb παρακοιτεῖν ‘to lie on guard’ occurs also in c. 33, 12 and 35, 2; W. Fischer, op. cit. p. 179.