station’s stable wings and central accommodation building. This would be the site of the expedition’s camp for the night.
A legion on the march built a new fortified camp every night of its journey. These temporary forts were used over and over again by different units traveling the same route at different times. The fort that the one hundred and ten fighting men of the Varro expedition found themselves in on their first day on the road to Beirut was much too large for them to defend in an emergency.So, after a piece of bread and a gulp of water for lunch, the legionaries set to work digging several new earth walls ten feet high and entrenchments ten feet deep to secure a smaller perimeter in one corner of the fort selected by their centurion. At the same time, Prefect Crispus’ cavalry troopers fetched water, foraged firewood for cooking fires, and brought in sacks of grain purchased by Callidus from a nearby village.
Once the walls had been completed to Centurion Gallo’s satisfaction the toiling legionaries set up the tents of the officers and officials, and then their own tents, following a grid pattern that Gallo had marked out using small purple, red and white flags. Each officer had a tent to himself, while the foot soldiers would sleep eight to a tent, in their squads. Five Vettonian troopers occupied each cavalry tent, with their saddles. Once tents were erected, the troops installed the officers’ equipment.
The questor, as expedition commander, had by far the largest tent. This pavilion, the column’s pretorium , would serve as Varro’s private quarters, as the expedition’s headquarters, and as the senior officers’ mess. Varro’s folding metal bed was set up in a corner; enlisted men had no such luxury, sleeping in their bedrolls on the ground. Three dining couches were unloaded from the carts and set up around a low table. A waist-high work table and several stools were set up, and a number of lamps placed on pedestals. Finally, the men reverently set up the questor’s portable family shrine, no more than a large box on legs. When the shrine’s doors were opened, they revealed three small statuettes of the Lares, the Roman household goddesses, flanking a central statue of Jove. A small wooden box with an amber knob for a handle contained family relics. A pottery incense burner completed the religious equipment.
Freedmen each had a tent to themselves. Non-combatants would sleep in emptied carts, or beneath them. Slaves rigged canvas shelters for themselves between vehicles and set up cooking fires in the open. Hostilis, the questor’s handservant, would spend each night in the pretorium , sleeping on the ground at the foot of his master’s bed.
As the sun was setting, a trumpeter sounded the beginning of the first of the four watches of the night. The sentries chosen by lot by Centurion Gallo and the four cavalrymen of the night patrol who would check that they were not asleep at their posts now hurried to take up their positions. Every three hours, as determined by the water clock set up outside the questor’s tent, a new watch would be trumpeted.
At the sounding of ‘New Watch,’ Centurion Gallo and his tesserarius , or orderly sergeant, came to the questor’s tent. As they arrived, the trumpeter was departing and four legion sentries had just taken up their posts, two either side of the tent’s entrance. Under a small canvas canopy to one side of the entrance two slaves were fussing with the expedition’s water clock, setting it so that it would show the start of the twelve hours of the night the moment the sun set out over the Mediterranean. Another slave was lighting a lamp which would illuminate the clock.
Centurion Gallo and the auburn-haired sergeant, whose name was Claudius Rufus, parted the curtains hanging in the pretorium entrance and entered the large, square tent. They found Varro sitting at his work table, talking with the tribune Martius and the prefect Crispus. The two
A legion on the march built a new fortified camp every night of its journey. These temporary forts were used over and over again by different units traveling the same route at different times. The fort that the one hundred and ten fighting men of the Varro expedition found themselves in on their first day on the road to Beirut was much too large for them to defend in an emergency.So, after a piece of bread and a gulp of water for lunch, the legionaries set to work digging several new earth walls ten feet high and entrenchments ten feet deep to secure a smaller perimeter in one corner of the fort selected by their centurion. At the same time, Prefect Crispus’ cavalry troopers fetched water, foraged firewood for cooking fires, and brought in sacks of grain purchased by Callidus from a nearby village.
Once the walls had been completed to Centurion Gallo’s satisfaction the toiling legionaries set up the tents of the officers and officials, and then their own tents, following a grid pattern that Gallo had marked out using small purple, red and white flags. Each officer had a tent to himself, while the foot soldiers would sleep eight to a tent, in their squads. Five Vettonian troopers occupied each cavalry tent, with their saddles. Once tents were erected, the troops installed the officers’ equipment.
The questor, as expedition commander, had by far the largest tent. This pavilion, the column’s pretorium , would serve as Varro’s private quarters, as the expedition’s headquarters, and as the senior officers’ mess. Varro’s folding metal bed was set up in a corner; enlisted men had no such luxury, sleeping in their bedrolls on the ground. Three dining couches were unloaded from the carts and set up around a low table. A waist-high work table and several stools were set up, and a number of lamps placed on pedestals. Finally, the men reverently set up the questor’s portable family shrine, no more than a large box on legs. When the shrine’s doors were opened, they revealed three small statuettes of the Lares, the Roman household goddesses, flanking a central statue of Jove. A small wooden box with an amber knob for a handle contained family relics. A pottery incense burner completed the religious equipment.
Freedmen each had a tent to themselves. Non-combatants would sleep in emptied carts, or beneath them. Slaves rigged canvas shelters for themselves between vehicles and set up cooking fires in the open. Hostilis, the questor’s handservant, would spend each night in the pretorium , sleeping on the ground at the foot of his master’s bed.
As the sun was setting, a trumpeter sounded the beginning of the first of the four watches of the night. The sentries chosen by lot by Centurion Gallo and the four cavalrymen of the night patrol who would check that they were not asleep at their posts now hurried to take up their positions. Every three hours, as determined by the water clock set up outside the questor’s tent, a new watch would be trumpeted.
At the sounding of ‘New Watch,’ Centurion Gallo and his tesserarius , or orderly sergeant, came to the questor’s tent. As they arrived, the trumpeter was departing and four legion sentries had just taken up their posts, two either side of the tent’s entrance. Under a small canvas canopy to one side of the entrance two slaves were fussing with the expedition’s water clock, setting it so that it would show the start of the twelve hours of the night the moment the sun set out over the Mediterranean. Another slave was lighting a lamp which would illuminate the clock.
Centurion Gallo and the auburn-haired sergeant, whose name was Claudius Rufus, parted the curtains hanging in the pretorium entrance and entered the large, square tent. They found Varro sitting at his work table, talking with the tribune Martius and the prefect Crispus. The two
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