Taliata
About
Domitian rebuilt this fort's original earth-and-timber walls in stone in 87 CE, just before his own Dacian War, giving it a 134 by 126 meter footprint. It stood as one link in the tightly spaced chain of forts guarding the Iron Gates section of the Moesian limes. A full restoration followed in the later 3rd century, and semicircular corner towers were added in the 4th. Archaeologists later found an early Christian basilica built within its walls.
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
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