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Diana Fort
About
Built under Tiberius and Claudius on cliffs above the Danube, this fort was destroyed during Domitian's Dacian War and rebuilt in 100 CE at nearly double its original 1-hectare size for Trajan's own campaign. Detachments from four Moesian legions rotated through alongside the cohors VI Thracum and cohors V Gallorum. The Tabula Traiana, an inscribed slab commemorating Trajan's canal cut through the Iron Gates in 101 CE, was found 150 meters from its walls. It remains one of the best-excavated forts on the entire Moesian limes.
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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