Fortress of Legio XIV Gemina (Carnuntum)
About
Legio XIV Gemina was sent to Pannonia in 92 CE to replace the destroyed XXI Rapax, initially camping at Vindobona, then relocated to Carnuntum after Trajan's Dacian Wars. Sources vary on the precise year of the Carnuntum move (given variously as 106, 114, or 117-118), but agree the legion was there by, or essentially at, the 117 CE snapshot and remained for the next three centuries as the provincial capital's garrison and headquarters of the Pannonian fleet.
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 →