Y Gaer, Brecon
About
Five hundred Spanish cavalrymen recruited from the Vettones tribe garrisoned this earth-and-timber fort at a crossroads in the Usk valley from around 75 CE. Its ramparts were still the original turf and clay in Trajan's reign; a stone rebuild would not come until decades later, under men of the Second Augustan Legion. The site controlled a key junction of Roman roads through the Brecon Beacons. Excavated gateways and wall footings remain visible in the surrounding fields today.
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 →