ABSTRACT
Fortifications are, in general terms, related both to perceived threat and internal strength of the state or organization responsible for building them. Forts and fortresses, frontiers marked by running barriers, road posts and watchtowers had always featured strongly in Roman military practice. As the Empire gradually ceased to expand, the army settled down in more or less permanent stations strung out along the frontiers. Many scholars rightly argue that the barriers such as Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the Hadrianic palisade in Germany were never intended to withstand a determined assault; they were not designed to be defended like castles under siege. They were at best a means of population control, of slowing down movement and hindering attackers until the army assembled to meet them in the field. Defence, in the early Roman Empire, meant aggressive response or even offensive pre-emptive strike into enemy territory before there could be any attack on Roman installations.
