... a place to stay, and so they either stayed in existing forts, or built new ones specially. Another important use was as a strategic position from which to launch attacks on enemy territories, or as a defensive unit in case of attack. Also, forts might have been used to store valuable things temporarily such as taxes or loot from attacks. Due to the considerable number of troops they held or supported (up to 1,000), they had to have large, well-designed food stores. It was imperative for all of the above uses that it was well defended, and therefore the defensive structures of the forts were a large feature in the design of forts. To hold the thousand troops that the forts sometimes were built to hold (the forts held auxiliary troops, and an ala was 1,000 men), large numbers of barracks were needed, such as the rows of them at Chesters, as shown ...

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