Segontium
About
Governor Agricola's engineers raised this fort in 77 CE to anchor Roman control of northwest Wales and watch the crossing to Anglesey. Its garrison held the post for over three centuries, longer than any other fort in Wales, with coin finds showing soldiers still present around 394 CE. By 117 CE its timber barracks were already being rebuilt in stone. A small on-site museum now displays altars and inscriptions left by the auxiliary troops who served here.
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
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 →