Prahovo Roman Fort

Aquae

Auxiliary FortMoesia Superior · Prahovo, SerbiaBuilt 101 CE

About

Rome built Aquae right where the Timok river empties into the Danube, turning the spot into both a military strongpoint and a river port during the campaigns that conquered Dacia. The station sat downstream of the Iron Gates on the road linking Singidunum and Ratiaria, giving troops and supplies a fast route toward the new province across the river. Mining traffic from the interior passed through here too, layering commercial importance on top of the military one. The site later grew into one of the largest urban centers of the province of Dacia Ripensis during late antiquity.

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.