Auxiliary fort

A cavalry unit was also stationed in Carnuntum, in addition to the legion.  The former horsemen’s camp was situated on the eastern outskirts of today’s town of Petronell, although nothing can be seen of it from the ground.  Recent excavations, however, have made possible a computer reconstruction of the auxiliary fort.  

The army reforms implemented by Augustus introduced auxiliary troops as an integral element of the Roman Army beside the legions.  There were infantry and cavalry auxiliaries, whose members were taken from those sections of the population in the Roman Empire who were not Roman citizens.  Both types of auxiliary troops in Carnuntum are documented by epigraphic monuments. 

The earliest indication of the presence of cavalry in Carnuntum is the gravestone of a member of the ala Pannoniorum, which dates from the middle of the 1^st century AD or shortly afterwards.  From the time of the Flavian emperors (69 AD) up to the 2^nd century, monuments are to be found of different units that seem to have been stationed in Carnuntum in the following order: ala I Hispanorum Aravacorum (c. 70–80), ala I Tungrorum Frontoniana (80–89/90), ala I Pannoniorum Tampiana (89/90–101/102), ala III Augusta Thracum sagittaria (101/102–118/119) and ala I Thracum victrix (118/119–2^nd half of 3^rd century).  A connection between the fort mentioned above and the ala I Tungrorum Frontoniana (as well as the ala I Pannoniorum Tampiana which succeeded them) and the ala I Thracum victrix can be established, since the earliest building periods (Fort I and II) date from the period when these units were stationed in Carnuntum.

Fort I was a complex built entirely of wood, of which, however, only half has been investigated.  In Fort II the defences and the fort baths were made of uncoursed masonry, while the rest of the interior buildings were erected as half-timbered buildings with the partial use of dried clay bricks.