Pons Aluti Fort
About
Pons Aluti controlled a crossing of the Olt river on the new Dacian frontier road, its name meaning simply Bridge over the Aluta, roughly halfway between the forts of Buridava and Castra Traiana. An inscription dated to 102 CE names it as a customs post, making it one of the earliest firmly dated points on the entire Limes Alutanus. Brick stamps from the Cohors III Gallorum mark one of its garrisons, and excavators recovered a hoard of coins cached in a corner tower on the fort's northwest side. Within a few years of 117 CE, frontier reorganization would shift a garrison unit here into the newly split province of Dacia Inferior.
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
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 →