SoA Forums

History => Ancient and Medieval History => Topic started by: Duncan Head on March 18, 2015, 09:29:21 AM

Title: "Oldest Roman fort" found
Post by: Duncan Head on March 18, 2015, 09:29:21 AM
Surveys in the Trieste area of NE Italy have produced traces of what may be the oldest Roman military fortification yet found, possibly associated with a Roman campaign against the Histri in 178 BC. See:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/italy-roman-military-fort-trieste-dating-178bc-oldest-ever-discovered-1492168
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/03/11/1419175112
Title: Re: "Oldest Roman fort" found
Post by: eques on March 18, 2015, 09:42:23 AM
OK interesting.

I have often wondered if the famous Roman forts extended back to the Camillan period.

That said, the article linked to credits Julius Caesar with exploits in 177BC so not sure how far the rest of it can be trusted ;)
Title: Re: "Oldest Roman fort" found
Post by: Tim on March 20, 2015, 10:16:50 PM
Roman Calendar reform by Caesar did some interesting things with making one year longer, maybe he made the preceeding 150 very much shorter
Title: Re: "Oldest Roman fort" found
Post by: Patrick Waterson on March 21, 2015, 04:06:06 PM
The camp should be for a two-legion two-alae consular army.  One wonders about the two additional small forts: might these be for Gallic auxiliaries who did not feature high enough on the trust quotient to be part of the main camp?