CAMP, the ground on which an army pitch their tents. See WAR.
The Hebrew camp during the Exodus was of a quadrangular form, surrounded with an inclosure of the height of ten handbreadths. It formed a square of twelve miles in compass about the tabernacle; and within this was another called the Levites' camp.
The Greek camps were fortified with gates and ditches. The Lacedæmonians formed their camps in a circular shape. Of other Grecian camps it may be observed, that the most valiant soldiers were placed at the extremities. Thus in the Iliad, Achilles and Ajax were stationed at the extremities of the camp before Troy.
The figure of the Roman camp (castra) was a square divided into two principal parts. In the upper part were the general's pavilion, or prætorium, and the tents of the chief officers; in the lower were those of inferior degree. On one side of the prætorium stood the quæstorium, or quarters of the treasurer of the army; and near this the forum, called also quintana, where things were sold and meetings held. On the other side of the prætorium were lodged the legati; and below it the tribunes had their quarters, opposite to their respective legions. In this part of the camp also were the tents of the praefecti of the foreign troops, as well as those of the evocati, and of the extraordinarii and ablecti, both horse and foot. The precise order in which they were arranged is unknown. Between the two divisions was a broad open space called principia, where the tribunal of the general was erected when he either administered justice or harangued the army, where punishments were inflicted, and the principal standards, with the altars and images of the gods, were placed. The middle of the lower division was assigned to the Roman horse; next to them were quartered the triarii; then the principes; and close by them the hastati. The companies of foreign horse and foot were posted on the flanks, and carefully kept apart, to obviate the danger of a treacherous coalition. The Roman camp had four gates, and was surrounded by a rampart termed vallum, and a ditch, fossa. The agger or mound of earth was secured by sudes or sharp wooden stakes. The camps were sometimes surrounded by walls built of hewn stone; and the soldiers' quarters were occasionally formed of the same materials.