Rittium
About
At the Gradina site on a raised Danube bank, 1955 trenching found a 1st-century settlement layered beneath a later military camp and brick-built tombs. The ala I Augusta Ityraeorum, a cavalry unit originally raised in Syria, garrisoned the post. Coins recovered on site date use of the position back to the 1st century CE. Its Turkish-derived modern name, Surduk, references the cliffs overlooking the river.
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 →