Portus Lemanis
Encyclopedia
Portus Lemanis was the name of an ancient Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 fort, settlement and port in southern Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. The modern village of Lympne
Lympne
Lympne is a village situated on the former sea cliffs above the Romney Marsh in Kent. It lies approximately west of Folkestone, 2 miles west of Hythe and east of Ashford....

 derives its name from the ancient port.

History

The first mention of the site is found in the late 3rd century "Antonine Itinerary
Antonine Itinerary
The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another...

", where it is mentioned as lying 68,000 paces (68 Roman miles) from Londinium
Londinium
The city of London was established by the Romans around AD 43. It served as a major imperial commercial centre until its abandonment during the 5th century.-Origins and language:...

 and 16,000 paces from the cantonal capital Durovernum Cantiacorum
Durovernum Cantiacorum
Durovernum Cantiacorum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Canterbury, located in the English county of Kent. It occupied a strategic location on Watling Street, at the convergence of the roads coming from the rest of the Roman Empire via the ports of Dubris ,...

 (modern Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

). However, there is evidence of much earlier use as a base of the Classis Britannica
Classis Britannica
The Classis Britannica was a provincial naval fleet of the navy of ancient Rome. Its purpose was to control the English Channel and the waters around the Roman province of Britannia...

: tiles stamped CL BR have been found on the site, as well as an inscription dated to the first third of the 2nd century (RIB
Roman Inscriptions of Britain
The Roman Inscriptions of Britain is a multi-volume index of inscriptions found in Britain from the Roman period. It is an important reference work for all scholars of Roman Britain. This monumental work was initiated by Francis Haverfield – his notebooks were bequeathed to the University of...

66) on an altar stone, dedicated to the god Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...

 from Lucius Aufidius Pantera, who is mentioned as prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

 of the Classis Britannica
Classis Britannica
The Classis Britannica was a provincial naval fleet of the navy of ancient Rome. Its purpose was to control the English Channel and the waters around the Roman province of Britannia...

. According to the late 4th century Notitia Dignitatum
Notitia Dignitatum
The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...

, the fort was garrisoned by a numerus Turnacensium ("numerus
Numerus
Numerus may refer to one of the following*Grammatical number*A military unit of 200–400 men, in the Roman EmpireSee also:*Roman numerals...

 [battalion] of men from Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....

") and formed part of the Saxon Shore
Saxon Shore
Saxon Shore could refer to one of the following:* Saxon Shore, a military command of the Late Roman Empire, encompassing southern Britain and the coasts of northern France...

 under the Comes litoris saxonici. The last mention of Lemanis in Latin sources is in the late 7th century "Ravenna Cosmography
Ravenna Cosmography
The Ravenna Cosmography was compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around AD 700. It consists of a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland. Textual evidence indicates that the author frequently used maps as his source....

", by which time, however, the site, along with the rest of Britain, had long been abandoned by Rome.

Location and construction

The fort stands on a hill overlooking the Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 mi ² .-Quotations:*“As Egypt was the gift of the Nile, this level tract .....

. In Roman times, a harbour, now silted up, existed to the fort's south and east. A vicus
Vicus (Rome)
In ancient Rome, the vicus was a neighborhood. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of...

(civilian settlement) had also sprung up in its proximity, situated astride the road that led to Canterbury.

The construction of the Saxon Shore-era fort can be dated to the late 270s, as is evidenced by its late-style characteristics, including forward-projecting towers. The fort's remains are in bad shape, since the ground, mostly clay, has at places given way. In addition, a later Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 fort (Stutfall Castle) was built over the site. The southern side of the fort is wholly missing, and elsewhere the remains have been moved at various angles, while little evidence of interior structures (remains of a bath and possibly the principia
Principia
Principia could refer to:*Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton's three-volume work containing explanations of his laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation*Principia , a stem-group coralline alga...

) survives. The site is still relatively unknown: the only major archaeological excavations were carried out by Roach Smith in 1850 and 1852.

The remains of the main rampart show a strong construction, ca. 3.9 m wide and surviving sections are still between 6 and 8 m in height. The wall is built of recycled material from earlier structures and bonded with bands of brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

, which include several old tegulae (roofing tiles). Originally, the fort had ca. 14 towers. A single main gate survives towards the east, as well as several postern
Postern
A postern is a secondary door or gate, particularly in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location, allowing the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing...

s. Its shape was an irregular pentagon, which covered an area of ca. 3,4 ha.

External links

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