DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22272#0165
the antonine wall report.
147
' tribunals' for the artillery." These stands for the tormenta
were called "tribunals," because of their similarity to the
judgment seats of camps, which commentators tell us1 were made
of sods.
When, therefore, the two expansions at sections 11 and 12a
at Croy, only about 80 Roman paces distant, are considered
alongside the facts that a third apparently exactly like them
occurs near Dullatur railway station, that two (if not three)
others still exist between sections 1 and 3 at Bonnyside, and
that at least one more remains intact near the east end of
Tentfield (or Laigh Bonnyhill) Wood,2 there is ample ground
for concluding that these mounds of sod were a systematic
part of the design of the wall. And when their characteristics
are considered in connection with the words of Ammianus,
and in the presence of the rounded projectile from Croy
Hill and similar stones found elsewhere along the wall, it
may be conceded that a -prima facie, argument has been
stated for the conclusions (1) that the defences of the wall
included a systematic service of artillery; (2) that among the
projectile machines, whilst the existence of weapons of dart-
throwing type may be reasonably supposed, the presence of the
onager with its round-stone projectile is a matter of relative
certainty; (3) that engines of the latter kind, and, indeed, the
heavier pieces generally, were probably, by reason both of their
size and their recoil, not safely workable on the vallum itself
without special provision for them akin to the barbette in
modern fortifications; (4) that the built-up sod stands of
Ammianus, the tribunals of Hyginus, with probably a wooden
platform on the top, were therefore necessary; (5) that these are
the periodic expansions on the south face of the wall, and may,
like the barbette in modern fortifications, have stood normally
unmounted, unfurnished with their artillery, except in cases of
emergency when at short notice the requisite weapons could be
1 See Facciolati and Foreellini (ed. Bailey, voce Tribunal)—"Quod olira de
caespite exstruebatur."
2 The expansion is in the portion of Tentfield Wood, which belongs to Mr. Forbes
of Callendar, at a point about a mile east of Roughcastle and nearly 160 yards
west of what is known as the Lime Road, leading down to the lime wharf on
the canal bank.
147
' tribunals' for the artillery." These stands for the tormenta
were called "tribunals," because of their similarity to the
judgment seats of camps, which commentators tell us1 were made
of sods.
When, therefore, the two expansions at sections 11 and 12a
at Croy, only about 80 Roman paces distant, are considered
alongside the facts that a third apparently exactly like them
occurs near Dullatur railway station, that two (if not three)
others still exist between sections 1 and 3 at Bonnyside, and
that at least one more remains intact near the east end of
Tentfield (or Laigh Bonnyhill) Wood,2 there is ample ground
for concluding that these mounds of sod were a systematic
part of the design of the wall. And when their characteristics
are considered in connection with the words of Ammianus,
and in the presence of the rounded projectile from Croy
Hill and similar stones found elsewhere along the wall, it
may be conceded that a -prima facie, argument has been
stated for the conclusions (1) that the defences of the wall
included a systematic service of artillery; (2) that among the
projectile machines, whilst the existence of weapons of dart-
throwing type may be reasonably supposed, the presence of the
onager with its round-stone projectile is a matter of relative
certainty; (3) that engines of the latter kind, and, indeed, the
heavier pieces generally, were probably, by reason both of their
size and their recoil, not safely workable on the vallum itself
without special provision for them akin to the barbette in
modern fortifications; (4) that the built-up sod stands of
Ammianus, the tribunals of Hyginus, with probably a wooden
platform on the top, were therefore necessary; (5) that these are
the periodic expansions on the south face of the wall, and may,
like the barbette in modern fortifications, have stood normally
unmounted, unfurnished with their artillery, except in cases of
emergency when at short notice the requisite weapons could be
1 See Facciolati and Foreellini (ed. Bailey, voce Tribunal)—"Quod olira de
caespite exstruebatur."
2 The expansion is in the portion of Tentfield Wood, which belongs to Mr. Forbes
of Callendar, at a point about a mile east of Roughcastle and nearly 160 yards
west of what is known as the Lime Road, leading down to the lime wharf on
the canal bank.