Arutela

About

Arutela stood where the Olt river valley narrows into the Carpathian foothills, a strongpoint on the Limes Alutanus later famous for its attached bath complex. It was founded in 138 CE, during Hadrian's reign, so despite anchoring the same river-line frontier that Trajan began, it did not yet exist at the 117 CE snapshot.

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

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arutela