Castellum Rueckingen
About
Ruckingen held the southeastern corner of the Wetterau limes where it met the River Kinzig. Archaeological dating places its construction somewhere between 110 and 125 CE, a window that straddles Trajan's death on 11 August 117 CE. Since the fort cannot be confirmed complete by that exact date, it is marked absent from this snapshot rather than assumed finished.
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
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 →