Annamatia
About
Excavations between 1999 and 2005 uncovered a fort garrisoned by the cohors VII Breucorum, whose stamped tiles make up roughly a quarter of all bricks found on site. A bronze miniature sword pendant, one of only 17 known from the entire Roman world, points to soldiers arriving from Germania Superior around 130-132 CE. Two barrack blocks built parallel to the fort wall were traced through several construction phases. A previously unrecorded gate design was uncovered here in 2000-2001.
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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