Armories and Grainaries

[lothia]

Ave Civitas,

 

If I am right, when Diocletian reorganized the Empire he separated the army from their warehouses and armories and put those two under the control of the Praetorian Praefects.

I understand the reasoning, to make it harder for the army commanders to stage a rebellion. But that means that the armories and warehouses could not just be sitting on 38th street. They had to be guarded. If they were in a city, I can imagine the urban garrison being responsible, but they did not seem capable of warding off a legion intent on getting inside.

Would the armory and warehouse be inside a walled compound inside the city, much like the modern Kasserine of the Bundeswehr is today. And, would they have their own garrison independent of the urban garrison?

 

Just thoughts and wonderings.

As always, Thanks,

Tom

[caldrail]

Guards would be supplied on the orders of the civil administration from whichever existing corps they deemed appropriate or convenient. The facilities would be secure but not necessarily fortified - it's unlikely such defenses were viewed as standard or were commonplace. Since the legions of the time were not reliably paid they often took civilian jobs to provide income and were not always primarily concerned with military activity despite the huge increase in numbers officially enlisted.