Panorama of the ruins of the Durostorum Roman fortress, Silistra, Bulgaria, base of Legio XI Claudia · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY)

Fortress of Legio XI Claudia (Durostorum)

Castra Durostorum

FortMoesia Inferior · Silistra, BulgariaBuilt 106 CE

About

Legio XI Claudia carries its title from the revolt of 42 CE, when it stayed loyal to Claudius. It transferred from Brigetio to Durostorum on the lower Danube sometime between 104 and 114, and in 117 CE it garrisons the fortress there, watching the river crossings against the Getae and the Roxolani beyond. It will still be at Durostorum three centuries later. A civilian town has grown along the road outside the walls, and the legion's veterans settle in it rather than going 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.

In ancient writing

Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 22.8.42
Ammianus names Durostorum in his geographic survey of the lower Danube/Black Sea region; Ptolemy's Geography also lists the town among Moesia Inferior's settlements.