Bononia
About
Garrisoned by a cohors Alpinorum on the northern slopes of Fruška Gora, this fort doubled as a river port serving Sirmium downstream. Paired with the Onagrinum fort across the Danube at Begeč, it helped Rome control river traffic through the Srem region. Large bath buildings once filled the eastern half of its rectangular plateau site. A sizeable Roman cemetery still lies on the slope just east of the old ramparts.
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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