Cuppae
About
Vicus Cuppae rose at the western edge of the Iron Gates gorge right at the turn of the 2nd century CE, administered from Viminacium as a stop on the road toward Nicomedia. It housed the praefectus of legio VII Claudia's frontier command in this section of the Danube. The post's Roman-era ruins were later built over by the medieval Golubac Fortress that now dominates the site. Repeated 6th- and 7th-century raids eventually emptied the settlement out.
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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