Azaum
About
A castellum sat 6 kilometers east of the legionary base at Brigetio, watching the Danube where two small streams met the river. The 2nd-century Itinerarium Antonini recorded it under the name Azaum, drawn from the local Azali tribe. Rescue excavations in 1959-1960, forced by a hydroelectric project, uncovered its western gateway. A civilian settlement grew alongside the garrison to serve the Brigetio-Aquincum road.
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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