The Saalburg overhead The Saalburg Overhead View. Source: http://www.saalburg-museum.de/english/home_engl.htm The Saalburg is a Roman fort located on the Taunus ridge northwest of Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany. It is a Cohort Fort belonging to the Limes Germanicus, the Roman linear border fortification of the German provinces. Porta praetoria, seen from the outside with Statue of Hadrian It looks quite impressing and it was supposed to impress the Germans who might cross into the agri decumantes to trade with the Romans. The windows are closed by shutters in a way that the defenders were protected even if they opened the shutters to shoot arrows at attackers.

The courtyard with a fountain and Fahnenheillgtum The fort was oriented in such a way that its main gate, or porta praetoria faced south-south-east, which is away from the limes but towards Nida. The central structure of the fort was a large principia, a central plaza surrounded by housing or offices for the higher officers, which was flanked by a roofed hall for assemblies of the fort's garrison. The praetentura (front part of the fort) contained the praetorium (the fort commander's residence) to the west of the via praetoria, and a large horreum (grain store) to its east. The horreum The rest of the fort's interior contained additional buildings: stables, magazines, workshops and, of course, the actual troop quarters, subdivided into contubernia. Two such troop barracks have been reconstructed in the southeast part of the fort. The Barrack Buildings with their reconstructed interior contubernia and the partially rebuilt praetorium. Source: VRoma Archive The barracks of a typical legionary fortress were arranged in blocks of six, each block housing the six centuries of a cohort. They were placed close to the edges of the fortress so that the soldiers could man the defenses quickly if attacked. The more vulnerable buildings - baths, hospital, etc - lay at the centre of the fortress. Each barrack had a framework of stout upright timbers whose feet were embedded in trenches. Above ground the walls must have been formed of clay over a framework of timber laths, no doubt covered by plaster. The legionaries would spend the winter in barracks within the fortress. In summer, they would be out on campaign, living in tents in temporary camps. The lobby Principa (Headquarters) In about 90 AD, the larger wooden fort was constructed with fortified walls and trenches. It was flattened when in 135 AD the second Raetian cohors equitata (a 500 man troop of mixed horse and infantry) was stationed in the Saalburg and built a new fort. Saalburg, wall and trenches outside the fort The village begins immediately outside the main gate, where the ruins of a mansio (an official hostel) and, behind it, of a bath for the soldiers were found. These areb followed along the road by the preserved basements and foundations (partially reconstructed) of residential houses and of a mithraeum, a shrine to the Mithras, a deity popular among the Roman army. The fort's bath was relatively large and quite elaborately designed to have all the main features of Roman Thermae. It has an apodyterium (changing room), a frigidarium (cold bath), two tepidaria (lukewarm baths', a caldarium (hot bath) and a sudatorium (sauna). The complex was heated from the praefurnia (firing places); and all rooms except the apodyterium and frigidarium were served by a hypocaust system (underfloor and wall heating). Archaeologists assume that the overall complex (fort and vicus) housed a population of up to 2,000 (500 soldiers, 1,500 civilians). Side Gate The fort and village fell into disrepair when, due to increasingly strong Germanic incursions, the Limes was abandoned around AD 260. Today, the remains of the 550 km long frontier complex, which extend from the Rhine to the River Danube, comprise Europe’s largest ancient monument.The Saalburg is not only the most consistently reconstructed limes fort, it is also the only one to have had its vicus (adjacent civilian settlement) partially excavated and preserved. The parts of the vicus visible today are located mostly to the south of the fort, on both sides of the road that linked it with Nida, the regional capital and base of further garrison behind the border. Wells Monument to a Fallen soldier. Source: http://romanhistorybooksandmore.freeservers.com M(ARCO) CAELIO T(ITI) F(ILIO) LEM(ONIA) BON(ONIA) (PRIMO) O(RDINI) LEG(IONIS) XIIX. ANN(ORUM LIII [CE]CIDIT BELLO VARIANO OSSA INFERRE LICEBIT. P(UBLIS) CAELIUS T(ITI) F(ILIUS) LEM(ONIA) FRATER FECIT. “To Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, of the Lemonian tribe, from the town of Bononia, centurion of the 18th legion. He was fifty-three years old when he fell in battle in the Varian war. As for the bones of his freedmen, permission will be given to bury them here. Publius Caelius, son of Titus, of the Lemonian tribe, his brother, made this monument.' Additional Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saalburg

Unless Otherwise Stated: Pictures from Germania Flavius