Fortress of Legio I Adiutrix (Brigetio)
About
Legio I Adiutrix was raised from marines of the Ravenna fleet in the civil war year of 68 CE, and moved to Brigetio on the Danube bend under Domitian, where it stayed for the next three centuries. In August 117 CE the fortress is its home but the legion is not in it: I Adiutrix went east with Trajan for the Parthian war and returns to Pannonia only under Hadrian, in 118. The garrison holding Brigetio at the moment of this snapshot is Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix, which took the place over in 105 and hands it back when I Adiutrix marches home.
What happened here
A legionary fortress holds five thousand men and is laid out to the same plan everywhere, so a transferred soldier knows his way around on the first day. Two main streets cross at the headquarters building, where the standards and the pay chest are kept in a sunken strongroom under guard. Around it: the commander's house with a courtyard garden, granaries raised on stone piers, a hospital, workshops, and long barrack blocks divided into rooms for eight men who cook and mess together. Training is daily, and building work is constant — soldiers make their own bricks, tiles and boots. A civilian town grows against the walls, with bars, traders and the unofficial families of men who are not legally allowed to marry.
Sources
Nearby
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 →