Chesters Roman Fort: Exploring the Preserved Remains of the Roman Empire

It's the most well-known frontier of the Roman Empire. Hadrian's Wall. For centuries it has fascinated antiquarians, historians and visitors and I've come to learn more about it. In this documentary I'm going to be going on a journey along the wall. I'm going to be visiting some of its greatest sites, learning more about its history and I'm going to be learning about some groundbreaking new archaeological discoveries that continue to tell us more about what life must have been like on this far-flung frontier almost 2,000 years ago. Welcome to Hadrian's Wall. So far in this series we've looked at several topics related to Hadrian's Wall. We've looked at the wall itself, we've looked at the military, we've looked at the settlements, we've looked at supply. But in this episode we're going to be focusing more about what life was like on the wall. Matters such as hygiene and worship. How did people who were stationed on this frontier adapt to everyday life? These people who in many cases would have come from places hundreds of miles away. So life on Hadrian's Wall would have been very different for a lot of those soldiers. Don't forget the empire is huge, it runs all the way around Europe. Parts of Africa, out into the Middle East. And then you've got Hadrian's Wall, North England. This is the very northern limits. So the weather here is going to be quite different. It's quite bleak and remote. You don't really have many Roman settlements and certainly none of these settlements are like what you get further south in England or further onto the continent. We're not talking about big stone buildings. We're talking about wooden shanty towns. One of the best places to get an insight into life for a Roman soldier stationed on the wall is here at this beautifully preserved Roman cavalry fort. My guide today is English heritage curator Francis McIntosh. Whereabouts are we now? So we're at Chesters or Cylernum or Cylernum if you want to choose a Latin name. It's one of the forts on the wall a few miles east of Corbridge. And as we're approaching Chesters now we're approaching from beyond the wall. Yep we're north of the wall or in Barbaricum maybe as the Romans might have called it. And we're entering the fort through the impressive north gateway. Ah so this is the north gateway. This is the entrance to the fort itself. So to get in here you would have had to pass through the soldiers guarding the wall. So you can see guard chamber on either side. This would have been a double arched gateway and you would have maybe had to know the password if you were Roman. If you were a non-Roman you know Britain you know what's your business in the fort? Would you have been allowed in? Yeah I don't know. We're crossing over the threshold we're now safe thank goodness in the empire. And these huge gateways I'm guessing and looking at the foundation. Are they quite recognisable throughout the fort where these gateways would have been? Yep so there's four main gateways and two small gateways. Most forts just have four one on each side. Yeah they're standard layout standard you know location you'd know where to expect them. A nice you know a good pattern. Fantastic round dig to see what's inside the fort. Yeah let's go and have a look. So we're just walking over now to the centre of the fort. The heart of a Roman fort is its headquarters or Principia. And you can see here it's quite nice being a bit above we can see the full layout of it. So we'd walk in going to the entrance and there's these rooms off this side and then this open courtyard in the middle. And there's quite a famous carving in the middle of the courtyard that I'll see if you can spot. Absolutely absolutely. This is a massive space isn't it? It's absolutely huge. Dominates the heart of the fort. So this is the centre of the fort. It's where all the administration would take place and you know people would come for their orders. And it's where the strong room is as we saw at Corbridge. Ah okay and we are now walking along the side. So we're in the middle of the Principia in the courtyard. These bits would be rooms here and you can see again you'll start to see the same features. Pillars to hold a covered walkway. And this is the drain where the water will drip off the roof for these offices here. We're talking about something which isn't a similar feature from what we've seen earlier. I'm not going to say what is that because I think I know what that is. We are staring at a penis. Yes or a phallus. The phallic carving as we say in you know Roman studies. The phallus was a really important symbol to the Roman army. Symbol of strength and good luck and not just the kind of classic fertility. So you'll see it on lots of belt fittings and all sorts of decorative pieces from belts and other things that the soldiers wore. But also you'll find it carved on stones. We've got one here in the headquarters. So it's a symbol of fertility and a symbol of good luck. Yeah and strength as well. So yeah it wasn't just you know we see it just as about fertility and a bit of a joke. But it wasn't that at all in the Roman period. There's quite a few actually on Hadrian's Wall as well. So it's always good to keep your eyes peeled when you're walking along. Okay I shall do. So this is the back area of the Principia. The heart of the fort. That's right. So you're coming through that door. There'll be one set of guards there. There'll be another set of guards here. Because you're going further and further into the inner sanctum. So we think that was a podium perhaps where orders might be given. And in here this in Chesters we have the shrine where the standards were kept. The Ides. See here this is our strong room which was underneath this Ides. The shrines. The standards. You get a much clearer sense can you here. So this is a really sacred space here. And off to the side down here with what looks like thankfully some much easier steps to walk down. You have the strong room. With the strong room with the roof. So you can see the size it's much bigger. It's almost double the size of the Corbridge one. And you mentioned this is the heart of the fort. If you look that way if you know the ground was as it was in the Roman period. You could see the north gate. So when you entered the north gate the street would lead up here. So the Ides is right in the centre and could potentially be visible all the way from there. So it's really really important because it's symbolically important. But it's also in the middle and it's protected. So someone actually possibly walking through that gate coming down from the south. Could walk through that gate and as soon as they walk through. They could see possibly the glimmer of the standards in the far distance. If the door yeah if the doors were open. And you know this is where it always would be in a fort. So you've come into the fort and the south gate's that way the north gate's that way. It's right in the middle. Well one other thing I just noticed there. I do love that is the vaulting. Yes it's original. Original vaulting. Absolutely. And this was covering the safe room. Yeah the strong room. And when this was discovered in 1801 the wooden door was still intact. Really? Yeah. Any idea what happened to that wood now? It disintegrated very quickly once it was exposed to the air unfortunately. Yeah yeah. But we do know quite a funny story when they discovered it. The workmen were extremely disappointed there wasn't treasure in there. Oh shame. Because you know they were told about this treasure room in the middle of a fort. There was a few coins but not many. Can we go in? Yeah do be careful. It's a bit damper than the one at Corbridge but do come in. Beneath one of the rooms to the side we have a treasury. A vault. And what was kept in there was part of the soldiers pay. So if they got ill or for some reason something happened they paid into a fund. Very vaguely similar to what we have today with national insurance and that. And they also kept any booty they stole from anybody that they'd been marauding or invading with. That was all kept in this room. You had, that was underground for most sites. And then above that was the standards and it was believed that the sacred power of the standards and the imperial cult kept all this safe. Oh you are, you're right. It is a bit damp isn't it? So you say the Victorians they struggled with this as well? Yeah so we've got accounts of them struggling and they were putting in drainage to make it easier to access the site and that's how they discovered the bathhouse. Which we'll go and see later. So it's quite a nice coincidence really. Otherwise they might never have found it. Well I mean it kind of gives a sense doesn't it? When you're in here how very close in it is. You know people coming down once again as we saw at Corbridge. Coming down from the main heart of the principia. Down here to get the money and perhaps the most secluded space. Bringing it up and then dispersing it to the troops or whoever. Yeah and if you think they've come into Picking Kippy you walk through how many gates? That's probably one, two, three, maybe three or four. Passwords and sets of guards you've got to get past so yeah. Mission impossible roving style isn't it? But the real treasure of Chesters isn't in the vault itself. It's the baths. So Frances we're now south of the wall and the fort. That's it we're out of the fort. We're down by the river and coming up to the bathhouse. One of the best parts I think of sight. Remarkably well preserved. How did they uncover it? So when we were up in the headquarters we were talking about the drainage. So Victorians were putting drains in and you can see the land slopes away and the land would have continued down to the riverbank and they put drains in and started to find the walls. So that was completely covered until the excavations in the 1870s and 1880s. So 150 years earlier we can just picture this as just being this mound. This slightly sloping mound. Yeah. And we would have had no idea this was there until they started digging it. So they put a drain in, found a wall and uncovered the best preserved bathhouse in Britain. Well military bathhouse. I'm sure baths would have something to say about. Well I'm dying to have a look. Let's go in and we'll go in the entrance that the bathers would have gone in. Fantastic. Certainly in the earlier periods of frontier activity bathhouses were hugely important. It's where people gather, where people go to socialise. It's where they keep clean. It's probably where they warm up. Right well let's come into the bathhouse. Brilliant. So this is the entrance? Yep. So this is the entrance to the changing room and you can see here are really famous niches. Every group who's ever visited Chester has to have a photo I think in there. And it's really interesting in this site because you can see. So this where my feet are was the floor level when the bathhouse was first built. Generally around the time of the fort being built in the 120s. This is where your foot is. It's a bench and by the 4th century this was the floor level. So again that changing floor level but also changing use. Because by the 4th century this bathhouse was out of use because it was too big for the garrison that was in the fort. So they repurposed it and we think, well we know some evidence of butchery was happening here. So we don't think it was a bathhouse but we're not quite sure what's happening in here. So really interesting just from those little clues what you can see the change. Absolutely this is once again like at Corbridge. We see over the centuries the progression of like how high or how low the floor level was. And it's the same here in this bath. Yeah. And so this would have been the first room you said this is the changing room. Yeah the changing room. There's a lot of debate about what these niches were for. Were they to put your clothes in? Were they for statues? Because we often know there's kind of religion and religious worship linked with bathing. But you know we don't we don't know. But they do make a really good place for a photo. Absolutely but where was the next place? So if we come through here and then you've got a choice. Do you go hot or cold first and dry or wet? So we can completely change. So what do you fancy? Should we go? Let's say cold first. Okay so we're going to go this way. So I'll try and avoid the puddle but normally you would walk this way. And we're going towards the river. And this is our cold bath. It's not quite a plunge pool. It's a bit bigger than a plunge pool. But you go in here and again this is quite confusing. So if you have a look we're below the floor again. This would be the floor level. We've lost that. So there's loads of things going on under the floor. But yeah so cold room there. Then you could walk through into there to warm up. And you can go from cold to warm to hot. Seems like you've got this choice between going hot or cold. You would probably go hot first. Sweat out some of the dirt. Go to cold to purify. You can go back and forward. So it's very much like a spa nowadays. Although there wouldn't have been soaps and things. We would have oils and stridules to scrape off the dirty sweat. And so what's a stridule? It's a curved metal implement that you would use to scrape off your sweat and your dirt and your oil. Fantastic. So let's say I've just had my cold bath. Where would I go next? Let's go hot. So we go back. Retrace our steps. In through the doorway. And in here we're in a dry hot room. And the heat is coming through from this room. Now you can't see it very well because we're going to stand on it. But underneath us is a hypercourse. Now what was a hypercourse? Underfloor heating basically. So at the moment we're stood on modern flags. But on that other side there's some original flags. And down on that side is a stoke hole. Some poor slave probably would have had to stoke the fire. And there would be heat under the floor. But also, amazingly, up the walls. So you can see the floor tiles don't go to the edge of the wall. And these things here, which will survive, leave an air gap. So the hot air comes under your feet but also the wall. So the wall and the floor would be hot. So I was remembering, as you were saying there, so perhaps a poor slave would be pumping this hot air underneath. It would be coming under here to make this a very, very hot room. Yeah, hot dry. So they did have steam rooms but this one's more like a sauna. And then next door the heat would continue to flow through underneath. So this won't be as hot because obviously we're a bit further away from the fire. But still pretty warm. So, you know, a less super hot sauna. Well, the last thing you mentioned was these slits here. That was interesting. So this, we know that there was originally a door here as well. Yeah, to butt up against. So yeah, and you can see how it's very smooth stone. Worn from all the wear of, you know, hundreds of feet. Yeah, so we go through this way. So we've got the pivot hole here. That's what the door would have hinged on. And now moving into the steam room. So this is dry. This is even more difficult almost to describe because all of the floor is gone. So all the hypercourse that we were mentioning earlier is gone. So we would have to float because this is the floor level in the Roman period. Some steps have been created using some ceiling arches. And we're inside what was the hypercourse. It's, you know, up to my waist. You imagine we'd be walking along here and the steam is created from water in here. So there would be a kind of a fountain and then also a hot bath there. So the steam will be coming off both. So you've got hot, dry, hot, warm and then down to the cold. So I'm just imagining a Roman soldier. He's come down from the fort. He's gone through the changing room. He's either gone down to the cold or up to the hot, gone through the doors. Of course, it's a higher level back then. And they're now walking into the steam room. And once again, you have this connected chamber, which is basically pumping and doing all the work to create this. So the furnace is on that side and there's pools there. But here there'd be water again with more heat to. Yeah, it's a really steamy atmosphere. Yeah, and it would've been hot on the floor. So you'd have to wear wooden, we think, wooden clogs to protect your feet because you're piping heat straight up onto stone. It can make it really difficult to walk on. Yeah. And I'm guessing this then. So this this area must have been, was it out of bounds? Was it? No, no. So this is the bath was. So again, it's with the with the another furnace on the outside. So these are channels to let the heat in. We obviously have to have quite a good foundation because it's got water in. Whereas before you just have normal. Normally you'd have hypercaused pillars for the floor, but that wouldn't probably be enough to hold a bath. So they put, these are basically four big pillars with the channels for the heat. So yeah, a bath, a water fountain. And then this is all heated and would all be very steamy because of the steam coming off those two water sources. And what other archaeology have we discovered from this very well preserved military bath? So we've understood the kind of potential flow and the changes. So you see here, this is another doorway. So the door jams would have been here and the door would be in the middle. So we could go through that way. There's a doorway there that's been closed up. If you have a look. So this was the original doorway. It's been closed up. So you see, this has been used for such a long time. They would have changed, you know, the way they used it. Interestingly, they found a lovely altar in here to Fortuna, who's the goddess of luck and gambling. So we know you didn't just come to the bathhouse to get clean. You came to socialize, to gossip and probably to gamble and to relax. So it's really interesting to think about this place that the soldiers could come to. But Andrew Tibbs thinks the baths may not have been quite as hygienic as you might think. So the evidence from places like Pompeii where bathhouses are still standing is the actual area where you bathe, the tub, they're large areas, they're communal areas. And one of the issues there is that you've got lots of hot, sweaty, muddy, dirty people, Roman soldiers. Pompeii, you've got the heat, it's all horrible, disgusting. Everybody's then getting in the bath together and it doesn't appear that there's any way to drain those baths. So there are no sort of plug holes in some of the examples. Now, it does vary from bathhouse to bathhouse, but you're talking about people being muddy, dirty. The soldiers were working long hours. They were working really hard. They're going in, they're oiling up, they're scraping the dirt off, going through several plunge pools. And then all sitting together, very communal. And yet the bath water hasn't been changed for a while. Not pleasant. So could any soldiers come down and go to the Roman bath? Absolutely. Bathing was an essential part of Roman life. It was kind of, you know, you need to feed the soldiers, you need to give them wine, and you need to let them come to the bathhouse. It's a really key part of being a Roman, keeping clean. Also the act of coming down, like we talked about socialising, you know, it was a really essential part. A key part of Roman life? Key part of Roman life, yeah. The soldiers would not have been happy if they didn't have that. Close to the baths, we also have the remains of one of the other standout structures from Chesters. So Frances, once again we're standing on a spot full of Roman history. Yep, we've come down to the river so that you can see the remains of the bridge. Hadrian's Wall crossed 73 miles, including quite a few rivers, and so it had to get across, and here it was on a very impressive looking bridge. And we're standing, I'm guessing then, on one fortified end of this bridge? Yeah, so one edge, one pier would be here, and then it would go, it went across in arches, and you can see over there the remains of Hadrian's Wall coming down, and that pier there, so yeah. And how was this bridge linked to the fort just up there? So the wall crossed over on the bridge, came up, and then went that way and it hit the east gate. So Chesters is a really interesting fort because half of it's north of the wall and half of it's south of the wall. So this wall and bridge, it combines together to cross this formidable river crossing? Yeah, yeah, that's right, so Hadrian's Wall on top of this bridge. So if you imagine the width and the size of Hadrian's Wall, it would have really required quite a large structure of a bridge to get across. Roughly how many bridges like these are we talking about along the length of Hadrian's Wall? So there's one here that you can see, and you can also go and see at Willow Ford near Baird Oswald, there's a really good bridge there that you can see remains of. The pier there is really impressive. Once again, I just love it. So we've just been at the bars, we've seen the Prinker Pier, the centre of the fort, we've seen the walls and the gateways, and now we've got the bridges. It really emphasises how the Romans were masters of engineering. Yeah, and when people think Hadrian's Wall, it's so much more than just a wall, isn't it? Yeah, and all just mixed together at the same time. Yeah. Right, let's keep going. Okay. Ultimately, Chesters was first and foremost a military fortress. So most of the fort was living quarters for the troops and their animals. Right, well, we've come into the barracks now. We can only see some barracks, but the fort would have been absolutely full with them. And at Chesters, the barracks here are for a cavalry unit. For cavalry? Yes. So if you look at this room, for example, this would be divided into two. At the front, three horses, at the back, three men. So they shared a room together? Yeah, so for a long time, archaeologists were looking for stables when the newer cavalry unit was based here, and they were very confused because they were finding barracks but no stables. But we now know that three horses at the front, three men at the back. I mean, that must have been... Just thinking of the hygiene and the sanitation, that must have been very, very smelly, having three men in the back room with the three horses on the front. So at Wall's End, excavations there in their cavalry barracks found urine pits in the front. But yeah, and we think probably the barracks are two storeys, so maybe there's a hail off the top. But, you know, you'd want your horses near you. They're a valuable asset. And also, I suppose it means they're safe within the fort. But yeah, I don't know if I would have enjoyed sharing a room with these horses. And, you know, it's quite tight. Quite tight, indeed, indeed. And is this barrack sharing with the horses and the men at the back, is this repeated along the length? Yeah, so you can't... This isn't a full run of barracks. There would have been 32 men in a Terma, which is a cavalry unit, as opposed to a Sentry, which is an infantry unit. So we've not got all of the rooms here, but you can see one, two, three, four, five barracks here. And there's more under the field. And at the end is the Decurion's quarters. So the Decurion is in charge of the Terma, whereas the Centurion is in charge of the Sentry, an infantry unit. But you'll see the vast difference in the accommodation of the Decurion compared to the ordinary cavalry soldier. Absolutely, let's go and see. And as we're walking up there now, we see that, once again, we have this line in the middle. Nice drain here, and that's another barrack. So you can see how tightly packed they were. It's just been rowed. And on the other side, there's another line of barracks. So really packed in. Because you've got to fit 500 men and 500 horses into this fort. They're quite tight. So just remind yourself, this one room... That's for the three men and the three horses together. This is the Decurion's quarters. You come in to that wall, to that back wall there. So possibly he shared this with his junior officer, and they possibly had two horses each. But even so, quite a big step up. Compared to what we've just seen, this is absolutely massive. Yes, yeah, it's quite luxurious, isn't it? So Frances, what do we know about the cavalry stationed at Chester? So the unit here was the 2nd Allo of Asturias. So they're from Asturias in northern Spain. So just one of those units coming from all over the empire to serve up on the wall. It just confirms the fact that we've seen across Hadrian's Wall have all these auxiliary units coming from far corners of the empire, coming to this northwestern fringe to serve on this far-flung frontier. Yeah, yeah. It would be, you know, a real hotchpotch. Different languages, different cultures all mixing. So despite its remoteness, Chester's Roman fort would have been a cosmopolitan place with connections to every part of the empire. You can also see these connections through the many cults that were worshipped on the wall. The Romans worshipped many different gods and they were very open to taking on new gods into their belief system. So there were the classical gods like Mars and Jupiter, but they also took on local gods that were worshipped by the people in the provinces where they began to rule. Even in a far-flung province like Britannia, we see the beliefs from the east get brought into this melting pot of religious belief. And this includes cults or religions like the worship of Mithras, which originated and was inspired by religions in Persia, and also gods like Isis and Serapis from Egypt. I'm a few miles west from Chester. The heavens have opened up. It has started raining, but I've come to find and have a look at this secluded temple almost in the middle of nowhere. This is a Mithraeum. It is a temple of Mithras found near the Roman fort of Carabra. The cult of Mithras, which is the worship of the bull, it starts out in the eastern half of the empire, becomes hugely influential with the army. More or less anywhere where the army goes, the cult of Mithras follows. The worship of Mithras was very popular in Britain, most notably amongst the army. So we get particular concentrations of evidence of worship, both in large centres like York, where the army were based, and also along the frontier, so at Hadrian's Wall. Now, this was a Mithraeum, and there are so many things which are really, really interesting about this temple. And the first reason is its design. You'll notice that it's long and thin. Now, temples to Mithras and people who were worshipping Mithras, Mithras was worshipped in caves, in a dark atmosphere, in a cavern-like atmosphere. So you can imagine that this temple, when it was in its full structure, it would have been dark, it would have been quite gloomy, it would have tried to evoke this cavern-like atmosphere in which Mithras was worshipped. So they are trying to replicate the myth of Mithras, which, being the bull, the minotaur, it's all about being underground in dark places. So you would have had all these soldiers coming into this dark underground temple, fairly wet, damp there. They would have had statues up the side. And then you've got a series of altars. Now, what we have in front of us are the reconstructions of three altars found in this temple. And as you can see today, back then there would have been votive offerings put on these altars for those hoping for good fortune in the future, perhaps. And as you can see, this practice has continued to the modern day. And don't forget, these altars would have been painted. It would have been very elaborate, it would have been very colourful. A lot different from what we see today. These big sandstone blocks are all faded and weathered and no colour in them at all. One of the reasons that the worship of Mithras was so popular in the Roman army is because it was only open to men. It was a secretive society and the activities and the rituals that were undertaken during a Mithraic worship at the temple were closely guarded. This led to Mithras and similar cults being seen as secretive and mysterious and thus they're often termed mystery cults. People would have been initiated in. They were sworn to secrecy. They weren't allowed to tell anyone about the cult itself and what they had to do in the cult. And we also know that there was a hierarchy, as it were. You could progress through the ranks rising higher and higher up the Mithraic order, as it were, if you completed a series of what they thought manly tasks where physical or mental tasks where you were in peril or in danger. And we know that this cult was very popular among the soldiers who were living along Hadrian's Wall. And that's one of the reasons I found it so fascinating. This eastern cult on the eastern edges of the Roman empire finds its way to this northwestern frontier in Britain and becomes very popular. And once again, it really emphasises the interconnected nature of the Roman empire. For me, this journey along the wall has been really eye-opening. It's been a privilege to meet some of these historians and archaeologists who've been working on the archaeology at this frontier. And for me, there are a couple of things which have been really fascinating. The first is that, and as cliche as it sounds, is how Hadrian's Wall is so much more than just the wall itself. It's the mile castles, it's the forts, it's the turrets, it's the nearby thriving settlements, archaeological treasure troves such as Vindolanda, Corbridge and South Shores. But the other key thing is that we're talking about Hadrian's Wall now almost 2,000 years since it was first constructed. But at the same time, there are still so many mysteries surrounding this frontier, so many questions that are still to be answered. But at the same time, every year, every couple of years, we see groundbreaking new archaeological discoveries being found on this frontier that are answering some of these questions. They might answer one question, but it springs up a whole host of new questions for future excavations to decipher. One thing is for certain, the future of archaeology on Hadrian's Wall looks to be very exciting indeed.