Sukhumi

Sebastopolis

Auxiliary FortCappadocia · Sukhumi, Abkhazia, GeorgiaBuilt 64 CE

About

Augustus renamed the old Greek trading post of Dioscurias in his own honor, and by the early 2nd century a Roman garrison with its cavalry held the site as the empire's northernmost camp on the Black Sea's eastern shore. Arrian called it the last Roman-held ground before unconquered tribal territory when he toured the coast in 131 CE. Pliny the Elder had earlier described the town as nearly deserted, yet the garrison still functioned there decades on. Modern Sukhumi occupies the site 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.