Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 6 - The Roman Age (6 A.D.-420 A.D.) (László Kocsis, Endre Tóth)

67. Detail of a bronze tuba from Zsámbék. 3rd-4th centuries garrisoned in them. The legionary forts were designed to accommodate five to six thousand soldiers. The rectangular fort was protected with system of ditches; it had four entrances positioned in the axis of each wall. During the 1st century, only the legionary camps were constructed from stone; the auxiliary camps were timber constructions enclosed by an earthen rampart. While most forts and camps were gradually rebuilt in stone from the early 2nd century, the wooden watchtowers were only replaced with stone constructions in the late 4th century. The forum, the assembly place, stood in the centre of the camp, together with the shrine which housed the military standards of each unit and the statues of the emperor and the gods; around the forum lay the barracks and the officers' lodgings, and the communal buildings (baths, hospital, storerooms), all built according to the military regulations. Entering the hall through the reconstructed fort gate, the first cases display the relics of 93 the military (Cases 1-3). Following the Roman custom, a large stone slab bearing the deceased's name, his rank, his unit and his portrait was set over the ashes of the dead. The figure of a legionary soldier, reconstructed on the basis of Caius Castricius Victor's grave memorial from Aquincum, shows the military costume of the army: the undergarment, the chain mail worn above the tunic, the military belt for the sword and a dagger belt, the pilum (javelin) and the military boots. Very few weapons have been found: being government issue equipment, the veterans had to give back their weapons after completing their military service, this being the reason that they were not deposited in their graves. Defensive arms (helmet, fragment of a ceremonial armour, shields) and offensive weapons (gladius, spearhead, arrowheads, sword) can be seen in the reconstructed fort tower (Fig. 66). Outstanding among these finds are the two bronze