Sitifis

Auxiliary FortMauretania Caesariensis · Sétif, AlgeriaBuilt 97 CE

About

Emperor Nerva planted a colony of discharged legionary veterans at Sitifis in 97 CE, formally naming it Colonia Nerviana Augusta Martialis Veteranorum Sitifensium. Standing more than 900 meters above sea level south of the Kabylie range, the settlement anchored the junction where the road from Lambaesis to the coast met the route to Cirta. Two centuries later the town gave its name to an entire province, Mauretania Sitifensis, carved out under Diocletian. Its museum today holds a large Roman mosaic depicting the Triumph of Dionysus, recovered from a private dining room in the ancient city.

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.