Housteads was one of these forts perched high upon a crag over looking the Scottish countryside perfect site for a fort but what was it like to live in the fort? Was life comfortable for the solders? Was it a healthy place to live? In this essay ill look at how comfortable life was for the roman legionaries. In the third centaury
It is evident in the ruins of the fort that the Romans were able to make use of water. In the south east of the site they had a network stone gutters that ended up in the toilets or latrines. These were at the edge of the site to get rid of the waste quickly its was a health hazard they realized this and were able to change the fort accordingly for example the fort was changed numerous times for numerous reasons some of them we cant know for sure though
In the 3rd centaury the bathhouse was moved inside this was to do with families moved into the fort this happened in the 3rd centaury .
The fort had a hospital onsite
They had some medical knowledge. Some foods and herbs were imported from warmer climates for example there are cookery books that have dates and tropical foods, however this recipe is not likely to have been used as the ingredients dates were from the tropics.
Roman hospitals were exclusive to roman solders this shows that the solders had a more comfortable life compared the rest of roman society
They lead a secure comfortable life in the fort clean healthy and for one very wealthy.
The commanding officers house was next door to the hospital as was the HQ (principia) as was the same thought ancient Rome in all forts. It was the richest house with its own private facilities , it was by far the most luxurious building in the entire fort within this building there was room for accommodation for the commanding officer his wife and family also personal staff e.g. slaves. This house was similar to many town houses thought the Roman Empire the commanding officer controlled the fort and as such had political power his home reflected this it also showed how rich he was. It comprised of a series of rooms with a courtyard. These rooms had under floor heating, The family of the commander would have mostly used these. We suspect that this room was a very richly decorated room as there has been segments of plaster found in and in the immediate aria of these rooms these rooms that had a hypocaust we can tell this because there are stone supports that would have at one stage supported the stone floor. The commanders house also had a kitchen of its own it was in the north east corner of the building. There was a heated room in the northern centre we believe this was at one stage used for a dining room is believed to have been used earlier as a private bath house. A latrine can be observed in the centre of the west range this would have been for the commander and his entourage use , only not the slaves he even had his own private stables evidence for this comes in the for of troughs on both the inside and against the outside wall the servants would have stayed in adjacent rooms.
The barrack blocks were on the other side of the fence initially built as a long building each block was divided into ten units . Each housing eight men the room at the front of each barracks was normally used to store equipment, say archaeologists whereas the back room was used for sleeping with the exception of cavalry on there end of each block there was more spacious accommodation for the centurion (this officer would report directly to the commanding officer). Normally the barracks would face each other later on however this was changed as there appear to have been drainage problems both were changed to face north. Improvements were made later on in the style of chalets . This supports the title view. There are ovens in the later barracks these suggest that civilians used them when the vicious was abandoned later on. Latrines were a communal toilet situated at the south gate the latrines a very clever stone tank was constructed to collect rain water holding nearly 24,000 litres of water and made of stone with molten lead poured down the side making it water proof very clever and inventive of them.