Maghnia Roman Fort

Numerus Syrorum

Auxiliary FortMauretania Caesariensis · Maghnia, AlgeriaBuilt 200 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

A unit of Syrian archers called the numerus Severianus Alexandrinus Syrorum held this outpost, the westernmost garrison in all of Mauretania Caesariensis, right at the edge of the border with Tingitana. The French army rediscovered the site's remains in 1836 near modern Maghnia, long buried and forgotten. The fort belonged to the Severan-era Nova Praetentura frontier system, built roughly a century after Trajan's reign as Rome pushed its defensive line south and west. A later Roman road built under Emperor Macrinus in 217-18 traced the nearby Tafna river, following almost exactly where the Tingitana-Caesariensis provincial border ran.

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.