A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



organization must necessarily vary widely from a fort one-tenth or even 

 one-twentieth of the size, capable of holding a few hundred men. For 

 our present purpose it is more important to consider the latter class, 

 which, indeed, is far the better known to us through numerous excavations 

 in many lands. 



It is a large class, and it is not surprising that its abundant examples 

 show considerable differences. All of them are based on the same 

 skeleton plan. All have the same general outline of a rectangle with 

 rounded corners. But sizes and shapes fluctuate within wide limits. On 

 the Rhenish and Danubian frontier the internal areas of the forts seem 



GREAT WALL 



r " ' TM^MHHM^H^HMaH^^MHMMri ^^^B 



ii--n mi 



a-tt IBM 



SCALE IN fICT 73 40 SO SO 100 ISO 



EAST 

 GATE 



FlG. 4. HoUSESTEADS FoRT ON HADRIAN'S WALL, EXCAVATED IN 1898 BY MR. R. C. BoSANQUET. 



(I.-VI. and XIII.-XVIII. Barracks. VIII. Stores. X. Headquarters. IX.-XII. Probably 

 officers' quarters.) 



in general to range between 4^ and 7 acres. But several are much 

 smaller (i to 2 acres), and a few are distinctly larger. On the British 

 frontier between Tyne and Solway, called Hadrian's Wall, the average 

 size is smaller than in Germany. The areas range, for the most part, 

 between 3 and 5^ acres, but one or two are smaller and several are larger. 

 These fluctuations are partly due, perhaps, to accidents to the spacious- 

 ness of the site, or the local abundance of stone or labour, or the views 

 of a particular officer. But in the main they seem to correspond to the 

 various sizes of the garrisons, that is, of the auxiliary regiments. A 

 cohort or 'ala' might be either 500 or 1000 men ; a cohort was infantry, 



196 



