Fortress of Legio VI Victrix (Vetera)
About
Legio VI Victrix came up from Novaesium to the single-legion fortress at Vetera on the lower Rhine around the turn of the century, and it is still there in 117 CE. With Legio X Gemina downriver it holds this stretch of the frontier, quiet enough by now that the veterans' colony beside it is the busier place. In 122 Hadrian takes the legion to Britain to build the wall that carries his name, and Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix moves into the empty fortress behind it — five years after the date of this map.
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.
In ancient writing
- Tacitus, Histories 4.21-30
Tacitus gives an extended narrative of the siege of the legionary camp at Vetera during the Batavian revolt, covering Civilis's blockade, the failed relief efforts, and the garrison's eventual surrender.
Sources
Nearby
.jpg?width=800)
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 →