Oppidum Novum
About
Emperor Claudius planted Oppidum Novum as one of his veteran colonies in newly annexed Mauretania, settling discharged soldiers along the road network radiating out from Caesarea. The colony took its place among a handful of Claudian foundations meant to knit the province together after its formal annexation in 44 CE. Roman detachments based at Caesarea continued passing through the settlement on regional security duty into the following century. Its ruins lie beneath the modern Algerian town of Aïn Defla in the Chelif basin.
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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