Artashat

Artaxata

FortArmenia · near Khor Virap monastery, Ararat Province, ArmeniaBuilt 114 CE

About

Artaxata was already Armenia's ancient royal capital when Trajan folded it into his new province in 114 CE, planting Legio IV Scythica in garrison. Roman engineers built the empire's easternmost known aqueduct here, carrying water into the city between 114 and 117. A soldier of the Fourth Legion left an inscription now on display in Yerevan's history museum. Local resistance and Hadrian's retreat from the eastern conquests ended the garrison within three years.

What happened here

A legionary fortress holds five thousand men and is laid out to the same plan everywhere, so a transferred soldier knows his way around on the first day. Two main streets cross at the headquarters building, where the standards and the pay chest are kept in a sunken strongroom under guard. Around it: the commander's house with a courtyard garden, granaries raised on stone piers, a hospital, workshops, and long barrack blocks divided into rooms for eight men who cook and mess together. Training is daily, and building work is constant — soldiers make their own bricks, tiles and boots. A civilian town grows against the walls, with bars, traders and the unofficial families of men who are not legally allowed to marry.