What is it about?
This chapter looks at how Roman legionary detachments and auxiliary, or non-citizen, military units were strategically garrisoned to help oversee territory within provinces and to carry out the basic functions of government. It argues that garrisons in fortifications were used in the same way as garrisons in cities. The cities of Palmyra and Dura-Europos, and their attendent networks of towns and forts, are used as models to understand how Roman garrisons were used and distributed across the Middle East.
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Why is it important?
This chapter challenges the idea that Rome's frontiers were defensive and that garrisons and fortified structures were used as part of a defensive front. It explores ideas about what Roman garrisons actually did by reassessing the wealth of evidence from the desert frontier of the Middle East. It offers a fresh interpretation of the fortified structures of the imperial period, and also offers new suggestions for how we should think about the use of auxiliary units. Scholarly perspectives on the latter have changed dramatically in recent decades, and this chapter offers ideas that could be applied to the use of auxiliaries, not only in the Middle East, but across the empire.
Perspectives
This chapter was one of the earliest to be conceived and written. Since it directly answers the key questions and ideas that the book tackles, it is something of a kernel for the rest of the work. It was written with a great deal of input and advice from leading scholars and builds directly on older ideas to produce its arguments. It was also a great opportunity to take abstract ideas of frontier defence, imperial strategy, and policy, and ground those ideas in hard evidence from the period.
Gary Watson
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This page is a summary of: Roman Stations, December 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004749689_005.
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