and a half feet. The early building was of a long rectangular shape occupying a space of about 224 feet by 57 feet, the interior measurements being 217 feet by 50 feet. Whether any further remains of older buildings lie beneath the surface of the Praetentura is uncertain. Excavation was carried some distance to the north on the line of the east wall of this block, in hopes that a series of early barracks might come to light. But nothing had been found when the exigencies of cultivation interfered to put a stop to the search.
The rows of huts at Newstead take the place of the long buildings which we see in the plans of Birrens, Camelon, Gellygaer, and Housesteads. The Newstead blocks are of greater length than any of those mentioned, but this is largely due to the huts being separate constructions with an interval between each. At Camelon and Gellygaer only the outlines were recovered; the excavation obtained no evidence as to the internal sub-divisions. At Birrens a few partitions are noted, but the plan is plainly incomplete. At Housesteads, the numerous partitions which were traced belonged to different periods, and it was thus a matter of difficulty to determine the exact manner in which the blocks had been subdivided at any one time. The use of these buildings and their internal plan is made plain from a study of the barracks in the three legionary fortresses of Novaesium, Lambaesis, and Lauriacum. In the case of a field force, tents of leather were employed to house the soldiers, and probably in the earliest occupation of Newstead only tents were used, if we may judge from the number of tent pegs which the ditch of that period yielded. In the more permanent forts, however, tents must have gradually given place to buildings of wood and stone, although in the Newstead huts and in the subdivision of the long blocks the tent tradition obviously survives.
Hyginus, laying down his rules for the encampment of a large field army, deals with the space occupied by its different units. It was customary to quarter the soldiers according to centuries. Two centuries, which in his time were each composed of eighty men, were grouped together in pairs, each pair forming a maniple. The maniple occupied a space 120 feet long by 60 feet broad, which was termed a striga. A striga comprised twenty tents, arranged in two parallel lines of ten, the lines being separated by a road twelve feet wide. Between each tent and its neighbour was a space two feet in width, the incrementum tensurae. The single rows were termed hemistrigia. In the width of the hemistrigium the eight soldiers grouped together
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