Matrica
About
An earth-and-timber fort went up on the Danube's west bank early in the 1st century, some 33 kilometers south of Aquincum according to the Itinerarium Antonini. Its stone rebuild came only after the Marcomannic Wars, around the turn of the 3rd century. A military vicus of merchants, craftsmen and soldiers' families grew up beside the camp, mixing with the local Celtic population. A well inside the principia has yielded some of the site's best-studied finds.
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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