Kapersburg Fort

Castellum Kapersburg

Auxiliary FortGermania Superior · Wehrheim, Hochtaunuskreis, GermanyBuilt 150 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Kapersburg sheltered a mounted scout unit on the Taunus limes, in front of a hill the locals called the Sow's Head. While a Roman military presence in this sector goes back to the first century, the numerus fort whose stone walls are visible today belongs to the limes reinforcement of the later second century, after Trajan's death, so it is excluded from this 117 CE snapshot pending firmer dating of an earlier phase.

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.