70 SOME FEATURES OF ROMAN FORTS 



Manchester is still standing,^^ and it would be safe to say- 

 that no fort was without this structure. Even at the little 

 camp at Toot Hill, which may have been only an earth- 

 work (though that is a point yet to be decided), a careful 

 examination of the central area will show the outline of 

 the central structure.^^ The name by which this building 

 has hitherto been known, will, however, probably have to 

 go. "Praetorian here. Praetorian there, I mind the 

 bigging o't"^^ might perhaps be repeated to-day with a 

 different meaning from that which the words have hitherto 

 conveyed. It is well known that the Prsetorium of the 

 legionary camps fulfilled a somewhat different purpose 

 from that for which the central building of the forts was 

 constructed. " Possibly it reproduces in some way the 

 altars, auguratorium, and tribunal, which formed (as it 

 were) an official annexe to the Hyginian prsetorium, but 

 in that case the annexe has usurped the site of the proper 

 praetorium. What it was called we do not know for 

 certain. . . . No direct evidence exists to prove that the 

 term Praetorium was applied to any edifice in the small 

 forts."** Porta Praetoria appears to have been found 

 once, but it seems impossible to decide which gate was 

 intended. 



Only last year an inscription was published which may 

 throw light on the nomenclature of the buildings of the 

 forts. In the excavation in 1903 of the headquarters 

 building of the fort called Rough Castle on the Antonine 



31. Boeder. Eoman Manchester, p. 22. The piece of walling already 

 referred to in a previous note may have been part of this building. 



32. Curiously this does not appear to have been noticed by Watkin, 

 who makes no reference to it, and does not show it in his plan. Mr. 

 T. C. Horsfall and I measured it in 1905, and found it to be about 54 feet 

 square. 



33. Scott, Antiq. ch. 4. 



34. Mr. Haverfield in Appendix to The Roman Fort of Gellygaer. I 

 have to thank Mr. Haverfield for kindly giving me permission to use his 

 notes on this and other forts. 



