Crumerum
About
Perched on Sánc-hegy hill on the Danube's right bank, this fort sat roughly 27 kilometers east of Brigetio along the limes road toward Aquincum. An 18th-century traveler, Richard Pococke, still found Roman bricks and wall foundations scattered across the site. Later quarrying and 18th-century conflict destroyed most of the visible structure. Aerial surveys today pick out its outline only as shadow marks in the fields.
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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