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Chester: the Canabae Legionis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

D.J.P. Mason
D.J.P. Mason
Affiliation:
Grosvenor Museum, Chester.
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Extract

Although Deva was primarily a military centre, the installation of a garrison was quickly followed by the growth of a neighbouring civilian community. Where such extramural settlements grew up beside auxiliary forts they were classed as vici and their occupants as vicani, while those which developed outside legionary fortresses were, from the time of Hadrian at least, known as canabae and their inhabitants as canabenses. This distinction could become blurred, however, as some canabae are known to have been divided into a number of constituent vici. The population of these settlements included purveyors of the modest luxuries and entertainments which appeal to soldierly tastes as well as a wide variety of other traders and craftsmen, some of the latter perhaps being under contract to the army while the remainder were attracted to the vicinity of military camps by the opportunities for financial gain which their garrisons afforded. In addition, there were the wives and families of serving soldiers (although, until the early third century, it was a condition of service for the ordinary soldier that he be single, this did not prevent large numbers from taking common-law wives), veterans and their families, and any servants or slaves employed in the households of such people. The only civilians allowed to reside within military installations were the families of the garrison commanders and, in the case of legionary fortresses, those of the other senior officers.

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Britannia , Volume 18 , November 1987 , pp. 143 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © D.J.P. Mason 1987. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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