Castra Durostorum
About
Legio XI Claudia was transferred to Durostorum on the lower Danube between 104 and 114 CE (sources vary on the exact year within that window, but agree it predates 117), evacuating Brigetio for XXX Ulpia Victrix in the process. It remained Durostorum's garrison through 117 CE and for roughly three more centuries, guarding the Danube against the Getae/Roxolani.
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.
Sources
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 →