destroyed, but according to Roman custom it
seems to have been built with less uniformity than the outer
side and shows more clearly the individual handiwork of the
separate gangs entrusted (again in accordance with Roman
practice) with different parts of the work. Nothing suggests
that either buildings or an earthen ramp rested against this
inner face. As in other forts of the Saxon Shore, the
foundations are very slight, being merely a layer or two of
mortared flint tied at one time by wooden stakes. outside were
two great V-shaped ditches, the inner 30 ft. wide and the outer
about 13 ft. wide, separated from the walls by a berm or
platform 35 ft. wide. The unusual width of this berm was
due in part to the great height of the walls, whence an easy
command of an attack entangled in the ditch-system was
requisite. But in part also it was due to the massive towers or
bastions which projected at intervals along the walls. At each
of the surviving corners stood a round bastion of solid masonry,
18½ ft. in diameter. Each side had apparently three rectangular
towers, two of them solid for 8 ft. above the ground and hollow
above, projecting 9½ ft. to 10½ ft. and measuring 19 ft.
to 20½ ft. in length. Many or all of these were doubtless
intended for catapults or other engines of war They are all
contemporary with the walls.
Two gates can still be traced, north and west. The
site of the west gate is marked by a gap in the west wall which
is mentioned in documents as old as A.D. 1197. The wall
trends very slightly inward towards it from each side. The
gateway consisted of a single roadway, about 11 ft. wide,
flanked by two towers, each about 25¼ ft. by 12¼ ft.,
projecting a little over 6 ft. from the outer face of the main
wall and 8 ft. from the inner. The towers were built, at least
as to their lower courses, of massive ashlar, and contained
guard-chambers about 16½ ft. by 7¾ ft. internally. The whole
plan closely resembles that of the main gateway of the
fourth-century fort at Alzei, on the German frontier.33
The north gate is far better preserved. It is a
postern, incorporated in the central tower on this side, With an
elbow-shaped passage barely 4 ft. wide in its outer part. Holes
in the walls 15 ft. above its pavement suggest a floor above the
passage ; fallen tiles indicate roofing, and a drain passes
underneath it. The whole is an effective elaboration of the
defensive methods adopted long previously in the designing of
the c1avicuIae of the marching-camps. Attacking enemies
exposed their left flank to the rampart of the fort ; few at
once could reach the narrow opening, and, if that were forced,
the elbow in the passage and the widening beyond it still gave a
vast advantage to the defence.
A third gate, postern or other, has been suspected
in a corresponding position in the south wall. Here there is a
gap, and the foundations have disappeared. The hypothesis
therefore remains unproven ; it is not indeed necessary, since
late forts like Richborough were often less liberally provided
with gates than’ were those of earlier centuries.
We now pass within the walls. Here a surprise
awaits us. Thorough excavation of about two-thirds of the area
has revealed scarcely any substantial structure of the period of
the fortress. The small triple fortification round the cement
platform was levelled, and the filling of its ditches included
innumerable fragments of the marble superstructure, which must
thus have shared its fate. If further proof of this be needed,
it is to be found in the presence, already noted, of marble
fragments in the walls of the fortress. In
. 33 Bonner Fahrbüicher, cxxii,
I 36. |