Zugmantel Fort

Castellum Zugmantel

Auxiliary FortGermania Superior · Taunusstein-Orlen, GermanyBuilt 90 CE

About

Zugmantel sat on the western Taunus stretch of the limes, built under the Flavians around 90 CE as a small numerus fort of just 0.7 hectares, later enlarged to 2.1 hectares and rebuilt in stone through four distinct phases over the century and a half it stayed garrisoned. Units posted here included the Numerus Treverorum and, later, the mounted Cohors I Treverorum equitata. It anchored one end of a dense chain of wooden watchtowers running through the forest toward Saalburg, and its surrounding vicus grew large enough to support two amphitheaters, whose earthwork banks are still traceable in the forest today. The site has carried UNESCO World Heritage status since 2005.

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.