Galați Bridgehead Fort
About
Roman troops raised a fort on the Tirighina hill right where the Siret river meets the Danube, building over an earlier Dacian earthwork during Trajan's push into Dacia. The pentagonal stone fortification and rectangular Roman camp together covered roughly 10 hectares, making this bridgehead one of the larger outposts on this stretch of frontier. Its position north of the main river put it at the very edge of secured territory, watching the approaches into conquered Dacian land. Rome abandoned the post at the end of the 3rd century as troop dispositions shifted, and archaeologists only rediscovered the site during excavations in 1959 to 1962.
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
.jpg?width=800)
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →