Cirpi
About
A palisade camp measuring 124 by 147 meters went up here around the turn of the 2nd century, the first Pannonia Superior post south of the provincial border along the Danube Bend. The cohors II Alpinorum equitata, previously stationed at Cologne, later garrisoned the site before it was rebuilt in stone. Excavations begun in 1930 by Ákos Szalay have never resumed. Its outline is still visible in the terrain near Tahi today.
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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