Altinum
About
This castellum and its attached vicus sat at Hajlokpart on the Danube, marking roughly where Pannonia Inferior's Hungarian limes sector gave way to its Croatian-Serbian continuation. A watchtower at nearby Sátorhely-Törökdomb extended its field of observation along the river. It formed a link in the unbroken line of forts, watchtowers and the limes road running the length of the Pannonian frontier. Little of the site has been excavated compared with neighboring forts.
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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