Diana Veteranorum
About
Diana Veteranorum took its name from the retired soldiers of Legio III Augusta whom Trajan settled here on land grants in Numidia's high plains. The colony sat 90 kilometers southwest of Cirta and anchored a chain of veteran settlements meant to hold the frontier without full-time garrisons. A monumental arch and other public buildings rose over the following decades as the post grew from a military settlement into a proper town. On 11 August 117 CE its founding veterans, granted land under Trajan's own settlement scheme, still worked those 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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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →