Lederata

Auxiliary FortMoesia Superior · Ram, SerbiaBuilt 90 CE

About

One of the largest forts on the Upper Moesian limes, this 200 by 150 meter camp went up on a hilltop overlooking a Danube crossing in the late 1st century. Trajan's army is thought to have used a pontoon bridge here to launch its invasion of Dacia, a crossing depicted at the opening of the reliefs on Trajan's Column in Rome. Builders quarried local green shale for its walls and towers. Justinian later shrank the fort to a 50 by 60 meter fortification in its northeast corner.

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.