ESTO PERPETUA 4 - THE LAST FORTRESS
This cache is placed near the remains of the small Roman fortlet that guarded the Kinneil stretch of the Antonine Wall, which passes immediately to the north. The fort was built around AD 143 and provided a home for the small garrison of 20 soldiers and auxillary staff. Rectangular in shape and enclosed by a turf and wood rampart inside a protective ditch, the fort was discovered following archaeological excavations in 1978. Following a further excavation in 1981, timber posts were left to mark the positions of the buildings which once lay within the fort. Artefacts from these excavations are on show at the nearby Kinneil Museum on the estate.
The Kinneil Fort Today
First Bonus Cache Clue
Remember to take a note of the word in the cache container. By now, if you have done the earlier caches in this series you may know a way of finding out what it means. You'll need to know, to find the First Bonus Cache (Esto Perpetua 5 - First Bonus Cache - GC8XEA1). Take a look at that First Bonus Cache's cache page and take the four clues for this bonus cache that you have accumulated in the first four caches in the series. On that cache page is a little puzzle for you to solve using the clue words you have gained.
Second Bonus Cache Clue - Field Puzzle
Standing on the wall looking out over the sliver of land between here and the sea, and with his face in the freezing November wind, Tribune Marcus Caelius Flavius Proculus reflected on how tough life was for Roman soldiers like him in a fort on the most northerly border of the Empire. As well as standing for hours on guard duty, looking out over the wall or going on patrol along the ine of the wall, there were the more perilous journeys beyond the wall to the north and west, often to ensure the small number of traders who did business with the savage Caledonians, did not fall prey to brigands, or get attacked as part of the frequent inter-clan territorial disputes.
When in the fort, the soldiers in his command had to spend two hours a day training with their weapons, and stayed fit by running, but there was far more than military drills going in the fortlet as he looked down behind him - merchants, hauliers, and auxillary workers were at work keeping the fortlet supplied as well as enjoying the shelter of the fortlet as a safe channel to do business between folk living either side of the wall.
Over next to the barracks, he could see the fort's dozen cavalry horses in the outward facing adjoining shelter, ready for the cavalry to get in formation quickly, in the event of an attack. Those soldiers not in drills were busy cooking their own mid-day meal. Locally produced food was supplemented from food shipped in from across the Empire, and the temporary Legion camp that had set up last month near the Avon south west of here, had brought many of the foodstuffs that the fortlet's soldiers had missed from their homelands - a cross section of nationalities from Hispania, Gaul, and Swabia. Some of the men had written home for luxuries to enhance their daily food and clothing needs, so the arrival of the Legion at the temporary camp was doubly welcome. Some of these items had already become valued items for which the men gambled at 'Tesserae' - the Roman dice game popular with legionaires.
Marcus was regretting his own choice of a luxury from home, a set of glass pieces and a wooden board for playing 'Latrunculi' - a Roman game much like a simple version of chess, playable on squared boards of differing sizes - 7×8 squares, 8×8, and 9×10....
A field puzzle is one only solveable at the geocache location itself, and is typically used either to gain access to a locked container, or (as in this case) to gain all/part of the coordinates for a bonus cache. Normally there would be a 'field puzzle' attribute on the cache page, but as this cache can be found without solving the puzzle (as the puzzle is for the bonus cache), the field puzzle attribute is on the 2nd bonus cache page instead. In the geocache container here you will find an image showing the very Latrunculi board Tribune Marcus Caelius Flavius Proculus played on. Take a close look, and see if you can help Tribune Marcus win the bet with the wiley merchant Philo. How many squares are on the board? Choose an answer from the 4 options below, and put the number of the answer (1,2,3,or 4) into the final checker on the 2nd Bonus Cache Page.
Is it:
1. 64 squares 2. 128 squares 3. 204 squares 4. 512 squares
The board image must be left in the container for the next cacher
The number of the answer above along with the two other clues for the Second Bonus Cache that you gained in caches 1, and 2 in the series should now allow you to find the Second Bonus Cache - GC8ZPYX - Esto Perpetua 6, and this is number 'G' on the table shown there.