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Auzia
About
Augustus's legions raised a castrum here beside a Berber village named Auzia, planting one of the earliest Roman garrisons in central Mauretania Caesariensis. Tacitus recorded the post as the Castellum Auziense, headquarters for the district commander during the Tacfarinas war. A civilian vicus grew up alongside the fort on the road roughly 150 kilometers southeast of Icosium, and by 117 CE both fort and settlement anchored Rome's inland frontier. Septimius Severus later elevated the town to colonia status as Colonia Septima Aurelia Auziense, decades after Trajan's reign.
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
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →