The Praetorium
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Director of Excavations Andrew Birley takes us through the fascinating history of the grandest house at Vindolanda and what some of the amazing discoveries that have come from it tell us about the people who lived there.
Great Job! Thank you for the tour! Well done!
Great video thank you
Thanks , Andrew , for your concise, clear and dramatic description of Vindolanda fort layout and who lived where. How can I support your work as I live about 100 miles away from the site and Wall area
By keeping your noise down
In the United States, 4 soldiers lived in the area of the lowest ranking soldiers in Vinalanda. However, when serving in Vietnam we often lived in spaces as small as those lowest ranking soldiers in Vinalanda. So, I could tell you what it feels like.
Sound needs a tweak, very distorted
"Such devastation... this was not my intention!"
no different today!!
The suggestion that the Praetorium was a "Family house" is ludicrous on its face! (tl:dr The Praetorium is analogous to a Navy Ship's Officers' Wardroom and "Officer Country") It is exceedingly odd to suggest that "family life" and "barracks life" existed side by side. Such a suggestion flies in the face of historical and time worn Army practice across the aeons. The onus is on you to provide incontrovertible evidence as you are fronting an implausible theory.
Being Ex-Army I don't buy the explanation that all of the "lower enlisted" rooms would always hold eight people. A Centurion would have to exercise informal control during the hours when the unit was not in fighting or drill formation. I really wish historians could dig up some dirt regarding how a "typical" garrison day was for a century. How many Legionnaires were tasked to guard duty, how many were escorting convoys, how many were on pass, did the Romans hold a daily parade, what was the uniform for the daily parade (surely there were multiple parades over the course of the day), did the Romans conduct morning (or evening) Physical Training, how did a Legionnaire maintain positive control of their kit and weapons? What did the Century do when a weapon or other "sensitive item" (such as the poultry) went missing? How did the Roman Army eat while in garrison and while deployed further afield? Is there no "Chow Hall" at Vindolanda? From my perspective as a former infantryman the questions regarding the Roman Army are endless. All the while I feel that Roman Military Historians really could care less about both my interest and my insight into how the Roman Army functioned as an organization!
The Romans must have had some system relatable to what I would refer to "Charge of Quarters" duties, of which there must have been many such duties during Roman times. At the very least the Optio, should get his own room likely right next to the Centurion's quarters and then the Signifer, Cornicen, and Tesserarius might get to split a room between them - much as the modern Army garrison is run today with two or three to a room. Though perhaps the Signifer, as the one who handles the money rates a single room with a pair of guards tasked outside. It is also reasonable to assume that all the double-pay positions SIgnifer, Cornicen, and Tesserarius had assistants able to do some of the many administrative tasks that must have fallen to these three who in my estimation also picked up slack for the Optio depending on the Century's daily taskings.
All of these niggling questions feed into the big question about the inferred usage of the Praetorium. Modern military housing is generally sited well away from the barracks. Officers, even lower-level officers have houses that are nowhere near the "Company Area" which usually hold the company barracks. Even married lower enlisted service members live in communities sited well away from the company area and its associated barracks! On modern deployments (all evidence points to Vindolanda being a deployed garrison) modern officers often just have a small room off of their headquarters building. To me this suggests that the Praetorium did not "house" the commander's "family and slaves" as you put it. In fact, I am skeptical that any family might have lived within (or even near) the common soldiers' barracks and "Century Area". It is exceedingly odd to suggest that "family life" and "barracks life" existed side by side. Such a suggestion flies in the face of historical and time worn Army practice across the aeons.
It seems more plausible to me that on a day-to-day basis the Praetorium would house the commander's staff. Your own analysis, as does all Roman Miliary history, of Vindolanda lacks any consideration for the young officer corp. Where would all those young officers on the cursus honorum live? There is no other place for this, admittedly small staff, to live other than in the Praetorium in the place you wrongly refer to as the "family apartments". Your own comments on the toilet extension oddly don't clue you into this more plausible explanation. The Praetorium is most likely the apartment complex for the Commander and the young officers under his tutelage. In my view this makes the Praetorium analog to the Wardroom and "Officer Country" on a Navy ship. It is where the officers retire to discuss officer business well away from the enlisted, aside from those more senior more veteran "lower enlisted" entrusted with cooking and other "batman" duties.
Please for the love of God enlist the help of former enlisted soldiers and run some of your idea past them because a great number of "Roman Military Historians" strike me as completely uninterested (if not outright against) military service in general and the affect this tendency has on some of these wildly speculative theories regarding past military life in ancient Romes jarring to those of us who have served in the military.
Excellent place to visit . I hope your not forcing people to wear muzzles when visiting.
The word praetorium pronounced as ' a piara utari oma' meaning 'He was flogged at the temple' derived from ' p r t m'... The word came because of what transpired.
Poor sound level.