Burgenae
About
This Danube fort sat roughly 16 kilometers south of Rittium, watching the river approach to Taurunum and the Sava confluence. Excavations have reached only limited parts of its defenses, but the distinctive shapes of its surviving towers help date separate building phases. The site remained under some form of occupation from the late Republic through the 7th century. Its Roman name survives directly in the modern village of (Novi) Banovci.
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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