Ács Roman Fort
About
Roman troops threw up Ad Statuas as a wood-and-earth fort in the final quarter of the 2nd century, filling a gap on the road between Arrabona and Brigetio after the Marcomannic Wars had exposed the frontier. Builders finished the stone version under Emperor Caracalla, decades after the war that prompted the fort in the first place. This stretch of the Pannonian limes had gone unfortified in Trajan's day, since the threat that built Ad Statuas didn't materialize until the 170s. Recent fieldwork on the northern ripa Pannonica has significantly sharpened the picture of the site's layout.
What happened here
Five hundred men, sometimes a thousand, recruited from a province rather than from citizens, and often stationed a long way from where they were raised. Cavalry units get a bigger fort and far more stabling; the smell tells you which kind you are in before the plan does. The layout copies a legionary fortress at a quarter of the size — headquarters, commander's house, granaries, barracks, a bath house usually built outside the walls because of the fire risk. Duties are patrolling, escorting, customs, and policing rather than pitched battle. After twenty-five years a man is discharged with citizenship for himself and his children, recorded on a bronze diploma he keeps for life. A village grows outside the gate within a decade.
Sources
Nearby
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