It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast

now you might remember a few months back we had Dr Francis Macintosh on the show. Francis

is the curator along Hadrian's World for English Heritage and she showed me around the

remains of Rome's northernmost town, Roman Corbridge. And today's podcast we're going

in a similar vein because whilst I was up there at Hadrian's World I was also fortunate

enough to be showing around another remarkable Roman site by Francis and this site is the

best preserved cavalry fort from Roman Britain. Chester's Roman fort situated on Hadrian's

World itself. Now Chester's it's not just renowned for how well preserved the cavalry

fort itself is but it's also famous for having the best preserved military bathhouse from Roman

Britain. It's an extraordinary site as you're about to find out so without further ado here's Francis.

So Francis we've headed north whereabouts are we now? So we're at Chester's or Psyllernum or Kyllernum

if you want to choose a Latin name. We're on the fourth on the wall a few miles east of the

location of Corbridge. And as we're approaching Chester's now we're approaching from beyond the

wall. Yep we're north of the wall or in barbaricum maybe as the Romans might have called it and

we're entering the fort through the impressive north gateway. Although only the foundations remain

today this north gateway would have been a monumental structure designed to emphasise power and strength

to anyone passing through this frontier fort. So to get in here you would have had to pass through

the soldiers guarding the wall. So you can see guard chamber on either side there's would have been

a double arched gateway and you would have maybe had to know in the password if you were a Roman,

if you were a non-Roman you know Britain you know watch your business in the fort. Would you have

been allowed in? Yeah I don't know. I'm across and over the thresholds we're now safe thank goodness

in the Empire. So we are now in the Empire itself and these huge gateways I'm just

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