The Saxon Shore System

[Imperial Dave]

with maybe some encouragement for local curiales to contribute....

[aligern]

I could buy the grain collection storage theory if there were not  so many forts and they on both sides of  the channel and so big. If the army wanted to ship grain  in quantity then it would make sense to move it by smaller boats to Dover  and then convoy across to Boulogne.  A fort at Pevensey would be sub optimal and one at Porchester , whilst good for grain collection, would be a long way for the Saxons  to come raiding for bulk goods.  In fact I cannot think that Saxons would come raiding for basic foodstuffs rather than hitting the coastal villas for metals, precious and common, slaves and perhaps wine and oil.

Roy

[Jim Webster]

with maybe some encouragement for local curiales to contribute....

From memory, didn't the Emperor tend to contribute towards the costs of walling cities? Or was that a lot earlier?
Certainly I could see them being asked to supply labour, and carting stone

[Imperial Dave]

bit of both

[aligern]

Is therevany evidence the SS forts were cities?
Roy

[Jim Webster]

Is therevany evidence the SS forts were cities?
Roy

My guess is that strategic geography determined their placing which meant some (Dover) were near cities, others weren't. I don't think any became cities afterwards

[aligern]

Agreed, so the likelihood is tgat the army built them. Simon Elliott's  book on the Classis Britannica makes it clear that the Army was something like the PLA and ran businesses in a vertically integrated operation, so they would be mining stone and chopping wood for themselves and making tiles. The combined wall length of the SS forts is about  7km so it isn't a case of building Hadrian's wall!
Roy

[Imperial Dave]

forgot about Simon's book on the subject of the CB....might get it

[Anton]

Agreed, so the likelihood is tgat the army built them. Simon Elliott's  book on the Classis Britannica makes it clear that the Army was something like the PLA and ran businesses in a vertically integrated operation, so they would be mining stone and chopping wood for themselves and making tiles. The combined wall length of the SS forts is about  7km so it isn't a case of building Hadrian's wall!
Roy

Simon also thinks they may have been built by Carausius as an intra Roman security measure during his break from the Empire.  If so, he had the work force to hand and already paid for as you say.

[Jim Webster]

Agreed, so the likelihood is tgat the army built them. Simon Elliott's  book on the Classis Britannica makes it clear that the Army was something like the PLA and ran businesses in a vertically integrated operation, so they would be mining stone and chopping wood for themselves and making tiles. The combined wall length of the SS forts is about  7km so it isn't a case of building Hadrian's wall!
Roy

Simon also thinks they may have been built by Carausius as an intra Roman security measure during his break from the Empire.  If so, he had the work force to hand and already paid for as you say.

He's not the only one. I'm sure some of the timbers have been dated to his reign by tree ring analysis

[Duncan Head]

He's not the only one. I'm sure some of the timbers have been dated to his reign by tree ring analysis

For instance, TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF ROMAN PILES FROM PEVENSEY CASTLE, EAST SUSSEX - "The timbers were probably felled in the period AD 280-300", and Carausius r.286–293.

[Jim Webster]

He's not the only one. I'm sure some of the timbers have been dated to his reign by tree ring analysis

For instance, TREE-RING ANALYSIS OF ROMAN PILES FROM PEVENSEY CASTLE, EAST SUSSEX - "The timbers were probably felled in the period AD 280-300", and Carausius r.286–293.

Yes, that's the ones 
There again, the amount of second hand timber I've used in my time, I could probably be charged with crimes against archaeology