Pontes

Auxiliary FortMoesia Superior · Kostol, SerbiaBuilt 103 CE

About

Trajan's architect Apollodorus of Damascus built this 112 by 120 meter fort in 103 CE to guard the southern end of his new Danube bridge, at the time the longest in the Roman world. Crossing the bridge required passing through fortified camps at both ends. A bronze head from a statue of Trajan, once mounted at the bridge entrance, was recovered here and now sits in Belgrade's National Museum. Thick sections of the camp's ramparts still stand above ground today.

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.