Fortress of Legio XXII Deiotariana (Alexandria)
About
Legio XXII Deiotariana (descended from client-king Deiotarus of Galatia's forces, absorbed by Augustus) was one of Egypt's two permanent legions, based with III Cyrenaica at the double-legion fortress of Nicopolis just east of Alexandria. Elements were used to suppress the Kitos War/Jewish diaspora revolt in Egypt and Cyrenaica (115-117), so the legion (or most of it) was in the immediate Alexandria area through 117 CE; it is attested there again with III Cyrenaica in 119. It was later destroyed or disbanded during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136 CE), long after this map's snapshot. No visible remains of the fortress survive and its precise footprint is unexcavated, so the point is a settlement-level approximation.
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 →