Roman army of the mid-Republic x 700m = ca. 50 hectares). Along the perimeter, a ditch ("fossa") would be excavated, and the spoil used to build an earthen rampart ("agger") on the inside of the ditch. On top of the rampart was erected a palisade ("vallum") of cross-hatched wooden stakes with sharpened points. Within this precinct, a standard, elaborate plan was used to allocate space, in a pre-set pattern, for the tents of each of the various components of the army: officers, legionary infantry (split into "hastati", "principes" and "triarii") and legionary cavalry, Italian allied infantry and cavalry, "extraordinarii" and non-Italian allies. The idea was
Trou de loup Trou de loup In medieval fortification, a trou de loup (French for "wolf hole"; plural trous de loup, also commonly referred to as a tiger pit in the East) was a type of booby trap or defensive obstacle. Each trou de loup consisted of a conical pit about deep and wide at the top. At the bottom of the pit, a sharpened punji stick (wooden stake) would be hammered in. In some cases, the pit was concealed by light cover of wicker and a layer of soil. Trous de loup might be found singly as a trap (in which case