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Urban life in a Roman military camp? Two examples from Switzerland: Vindonissa and Augusta Raurica

A Roman military camp, also known as a castellum or castrum, was a fortified place where soldiers lived and trained. The camps were located wherever the Roman Empire expanded and reached or created borders. They formed the starting point for military actions or were themselves the site of battles. Through their presence, the soldiers influenced the economy and the settlement area in the conquered territories. Many towns were founded by the Romans and still exist today. They were often built in places where the Roman military was stationed. Soldiers’ families, retired soldiers, traders, craftsmen and innkeepers always lived near Roman barracks. Certain institutions were indispensable for life in such an urban structure. In addition to the necessary crew quarters, stables and a military hospital, sanitary and entertainment facilities (latrines, thermal baths, theatres, amphitheatres, brothels), craft and agricultural businesses, commercial and assembly buildings were built. Temples and sanctuaries completed the life of the military urbs. And last but not least: they built roads and laid pipes to supply water and remove waste water. They emulated the capital Rome with colourful wall paintings and imported luxury goods of all kinds, as well as in terms of representation with public buildings – including in the camps of present-day Switzerland, in particular Vindonissa and Augusta Raurica, whereby the former developed from a camp to an urban centre and the latter from a civilian settlement to a castrum.[1]

Fig. 1: The amphitheatre in Vindonissa is the largest of its kind in Switzerland (photo: A.Becker)

Vindonissa

In the 1st century AD, the conquered territories to the west and south of the Rhine were secured by military camps. In this context, the military post of Vindonissa, south of the River Aare, was developed into a legionary camp. It was around 20 hectares in size and used the standard layout of Roman military installations, adapted to the terrain. The defences were initially built of wood and earth, with wooden gates and intermediate towers, and there was a ditch in front of the defences. The 11th legion replaced the defences with a 3.6 metre wide camp wall. The west gate was a representative reception gate. From 70 AD, the interior of the camp was extended with buildings that transformed it into an urban centre, with civilian settlements to the west, south and east. Excavations have revealed around half of these interior urban buildings. These include a central building, the camp baths, several storage buildings and workshops, a sacred precinct with a podium temple, the legion commander’s palace, the staff officers’ houses and many crew quarters for the legionaries. Drinking water for the 6,000-strong camp garrison was transported by aquaducts from a source 2.4 km to the south to the southern front of the camp. From a water distribution plant, the water was then channelled along the camp roads in wooden and lead pipes. The waste water was collected in large, brick-built sewers and then channelled northwards. Solid waste and building rubble were also deposited in front of the northern front of the camp. A natural step in the terrain made disposal easy. This large waste dump, known as the “rubble mound of Vindonissa”, still contains unique artefacts made of organic material such as wood and leather. Over 100 wooden writing tablets found there provide a phenomenal insight into the everyday life of soldiers in the 1st century AD.

Figure 2: Modern south gate at the excavation site (photo: A.Becker)

How urban was life as a soldier?

Soldiers bring their everyday lives from the cities of the empire and in particular the urbs (Rome) to the provinces. But how urban is a soldier’s life in the foreign? The multifaceted everyday life of soldiers has been and continues to be the focus of research and exhibitions, most recently in a comprehensive presentation at the British Museum in London with finds from Scotland to modern-day Syria.[2] Many finds bear witness to human relationships, such as a pair of children’s shoes or the gravestones of married couples. It was not uncommon for soldiers to start and accompany families at military bases, both officially and unofficially, as most soldiers were not allowed to marry. Soldiers were often viewed with fear and hostility by the local civilian population when they took and administered territory by force. Roman military artefacts are largely finds of attack and defence. Their bearers could meet a gruesome end both on the battlefield and outside the fort. In soldiers’ graves, clothing and crockery are indicators of status, but also of the crafts and trading activities in the region. In the 3rd century AD, a renewed tendency towards fortification is evident due to armed conflicts. The Castrum Rauracense (today’s Kaiseraugst) secured the Rhine bridge from the late 3rd century and was the location of a Roman legion.

Roman Switzerland, Figure 3: 14 AD and Figure 4: 395 AD (CC BY-SA 4.0, maps by Marco Zanoli in: Die Schweiz in römischer Zeit – Wikipedia)

Augusta Raurica

The Roman colony of Augusta Raurica is located in Switzerland on the south bank of the Rhine, around 10 kilometres east of Basel and 40 kilometres west of Vindonissa. The name means “city of Augustus in the land of the Rauricans”. It was founded in 44 BC and was the oldest and largest Roman settlement in the region. Around 200 AD, about 10,000 people lived here. From 290 AD, a military base was built on the Rhine in the area of the lower town (troops from Vindonissa had already been stationed here to some extent in the past). There was war in the Roman Empire in the 4th century. Germanic tribes took advantage of the unrest to invade across the borders. In the late summer of 352 AD, the castrum was overrun and badly damaged. One of the largest silver treasures of late antiquity was also buried during this time. It weighs 58 kg and consists of 270 objects such as plates, bowls, spoons and coins. Inscriptions show that the silver treasure from Kaiseraugst belonged to a high official of the emperor. It was not just tableware, but the ownership of a high-ranking officer or official who must have collected the pieces over many years. Some pieces were received as gifts from Emperor Augustus. However, there is no evidence that the treasure belonged to just one person. One of these owners could have been the army commander Romulus. The inscription on the plate only says that it once belonged to Romulus. The silver coins and ingots show that the treasure was buried between 350 and 353 AD. Perhaps the tensions between domestic and foreign policy reasons were so great that the treasure was buried. The silver treasure from Kaiseraugst shows how people in Western Europe produced silver artefacts in late antiquity.

Figure 5: Wall of the Castrum Rauracense with spolia from a former settlement built into it (photo: A.Becker)

The fort was rebuilt in the second half of the 4th century. It was now part of the border fortifications on the Rhine. Emperor Valentinian had reinforced it with 50 watchtowers. They stretched from Lake Constance to Basel. The remains of thermal baths, the Rhine Baths, and a late amphitheatre, the most recent construction of such a theatre to date, also date from the 4th century. a church was also built between 360 and 400 AD, partly on the foundations of older Roman buildings. With a nave measuring 18 by 10 metres, the church was very large for its time and must have been a new administrative centre for the Christians in the settlement and for the region. Part of the apse of this late antique church can still be seen underneath the later church that replaced it. Attached to it are the walls of a small bathing facility, which is discussed as a baptistery with lithurgical bath or a small profane balneum.[3] Furthermore, finds such as pottery and militaria attest to the presence of Roman troops until the first half of the 5th century. The town only became less important in the 7th century. Today, parts of the ancient settlement belong to the municipalities of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It has hardly been built over and is gradually being explored through small emergency and research excavations.[4]

Material analyses from the assemblages as time capsules

Alissa Whitmore analysed small finds in military and provincial baths, e.g. in Augst, to find out more about the bathing culture visible in the material remains. According to her research, they provide a deep insight into social life in military and provincial baths as well as regional and temporal variations in bathing culture and expand our knowledge of the diversity of activities in this important urban space. For the collection at Augusta Raurica, she focused on the main drain of the frigidarium and excluded objects from the Natatio drain as well as artefacts found in or under layers of debris possibly related to the collapse of the drain. The artefacts found in the drains of several baths reflect the daily activities of bathers. These include jewellery and toys, but also food remains. For Augusta Raurica, for example, 24 glass, melon, bone and jet beads, 1 carnelian intaglio, 25 bone hairpins, 4 glass rings, 2 glass and 1 bronze bracelet, 1 bronze earring, a small bone cube, 10 bone and stone game pieces and crockery in the form of TS cups, bowls and dishes, ceramic mugs, jugs, pots, bowls, amphorae, glass bowls and bottles, mortaria and a cooking pot were found. She states that most of the artefacts found in these baths relate to jewellery and social display, eating and drinking, bathing and personal hygiene, as well as games and everyday objects that bear witness to urban life outside Rome.

Religion and urbanity in the military camp?

The two examples from Switzerland, Vindonissa and Augusta Raurica, show both the mobility of the camps built by Roman armed forces and their colonisation strategies, with which they brought the Roman way of life to the provinces. Market squares for the exchange of goods, theatres and thermal baths were built, as were temples for the local gods, who were given sanctuaries and districts in foreign lands and thus developed the originally foreign place into a Roman urban space. A soldier quite naturally brought his lived religion and his lived urbs with him to the military camp. At the same time, it was above all time that defined the place, where investments were made in institutions that urbanized the camp and thus made it a precious place for thousands of people to live.

Figure 7: Modern signpost for the Legionary Trail around the camp for 6000 (photo: A.Becker)

Further Reading:

Guggisberg, M.(Ed.): Der spätrömische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst. Die neuen Funde Silber im Spannungsfeld von Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft der Spätantike, Forschungen in Augst 34, Augst 2003. untitled (augustaraurica.ch)

Schatzmann, R.: Die Spätzeit der Oberstadt von Augusta Raurica. Untersuchungen zur Stadtentwicklung im 3. Jahrhundert, Forschungen in Augst 48, Augst 2013. FiA48.pdf (augustaraurica.ch)

Whitmore A.M.: Small finds and the social environment of the roman public baths. Doctoral thesis. University of Iowa 2013, Iowa City,
742 p. (see also her contribution in Archaeologia Mosellana 10, 2018, Thermae in Context, the Roman Bath in Town and in Life: Actes Du Colloque de Dalheim, Luxembourg, Du 21 Au 24 Février 2013, p. 57-77)


[1] A dream of Rome. Roman city life in south-west Germany. Exhibition of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate, Directorate of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier and the Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgart from 25 October 2014 to 12 April 2015.

[2] See the catalogue by Abdy, R.: Legion. Life in the Roman Army. Published to accompany the exhibition at the British Museum from 12 February to 23 June 2024, London 2024.

[3] Laur-Belart, R.: Frühchristliches Baptisterium mit Bad in Kaiseraugst, Ur-Schweiz 30 (1967), 16 leaves open the question of whether it was a liturgical bath associated with baptism or cleansing the body before going to church, or whether it was a bath reserved for Christians. Faccani, G.: Die Dorfkirche St. Gallus in Kaiseraugst/AG Die bauliche Entwicklung vom römischen Profangebäude zur heutigen christkatholischen Gemeindekirche. Forschungen in Augst 42 (2012) Fia42.pdf (augustaraurica.ch), 168, interprets it as a small profane bathhouse and also thinks the interpretation as a seat for a bishop is overcome.

[4] Summary of the excavations up to 1993 by Furger, A.R.: Die urbanistische Entwicklung von Augusta Raurica vom 1. bis zum 3. Jahrhundert, JbAK 15 (1994), 29-38. 


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Aileen Becker (February 24, 2025). Urban life in a Roman military camp? Two examples from Switzerland: Vindonissa and Augusta Raurica. Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations. Retrieved May 16, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13d3r


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