Doncaster
About
A timber fort built around 70 CE at the meeting of Ermine Street and the River Don gave Rome control of a key crossing point in South Yorkshire. The garrison temporarily marched north when governor Agricola campaigned into Caledonia in the late 70s and early 80s CE, but troops returned to rebuild and hold the post afterward. By Trajan's reign the fort was fully operational again, and it would go on to be regarrisoned right through to around 390 CE. Its remains today lie buried beneath Doncaster Minster in the heart of the modern town.
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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