Arrabona
About
An auxiliary camp for 1,000 men rose on a Celtic river-junction settlement under Claudius, guarding the mouth of the Rába. By the early 2nd century it held the ala Ulpia contariorum milliaria, the only double-strength cavalry unit in Pannonia Superior. Roman-era stonework still sits in the casemates of Győr's later castle. The fort anchored trade between the Danube frontier and the interior for four centuries.
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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