Deva Victrix
Deva was a fort and town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Chester, located in the English county of Cheshire.
Deva or 'Deva Victrix' was founded around AD 79 during the reign of Vespasian. It is thought that the title 'victrix' in the name of the legion and Fortress refers to the defeat of boudica and the British rebellion against Roman rule by the twentieth legion. The name for the city of Chester comes from the Latin word 'castra' which is present in many other cities that were once Roman towns and forts. The Roman name for Chester 'Deva' was pronounced 'Deewa'. The name comes from 'Goddess', and Roman fortress was named after the Goddess of the River Dee.
The Romans positioned the larger than normal Fortress high on a sandstone bluff above the marshes. The Fortress covered 60.90 acres, 20% larger than York and Caerleon, which were founded at the same time. Free from the floods of winter and the ever-changing shorelines of the estuary. The bend in the River Dee provides protection on two sides South and West. It is also the lowest bridgeable and fordable point on the River Dee before it becomes too wide and treacherous. Drinking water was piped in from a spring in the suburb of Boughton.
During recent excavations at Chester Amphitheatre traces of an Iron Age Farm was discovered along with a ridge and furrow field system. Before this, it was suggested that the Roman Fortress was established on a totally green field site.
The Fortress plan was the standard 'playing card' shape with some modifications to the normal plan of buildings. It had four gates, corner towers and interval towers between the gates. The Roman gates had double arches and the Roman Eastgate had a statue of Mars the Roman god of War in the middle of the two arches. A fosse or ditch was dug around the north and east sides to provide extra protection. It has been calculated that the fortress was designed to accommodate 6000 soldiers. The internal buildings consisted of barracks, baths, a hospital, a granary and some ‘headquarters’ buildings. The main Fortress baths were located half way down the modern Bridge Street on the right hand side. The full plan of Roman Deva is still not known because only limited excavations have taken place after demolition work. It is speculated that a Roman temple may have existed under Chester Cathedral, this is yet to be proved.
A timber fortress was established first which was replaced later with a stone fortress. The local sandstone was quarried from the south of the river around the area now called 'Edgar’s Field' to provide building material for the fortress and its buildings. The Roman quarry face is still visible today on the outcrop of rock in the field. Through excavations carried out it has been established that many of the stone buildings were not completed and they were left abandoned for as much as one hundred years before they were completed to a slightly modified plan. One example of this is the unique and strange Elliptical Building.
This building was part of the original plan for the Fortress. It is unique in the Roman Empire, not even an example of this type of building exists in Rome itself. The building was located near centre of the fortress, it had its own bath buildings and a range of store rooms around the outside. On the inside was an oval courtyard with twelve alcoves and a large ornamental fountain at the centre. There is speculation that the oval represents the known Roman world and the alcoves had statues of Gods in them.
Traces of the concrete foundation of the fountain and lead pipe work have been excavated.
http://www.take27.co.uk/julianbaum/ChesterProject/EB/EB.html
Traces have been found under the amphitheatre and market hall of pre-fortress buildings on a different alignment. It is speculated that a forward camp was established before the first timber fortress was constructed. The castle hill is also a possible site for such a camp.
Second Legion built their fortress in the territory of the Cornovii. It soon became the main base for Legio XX Valeria Victrix, the 20th Legion,who used it as a port administration base and military fort. It was then one of the principal towns of Roman Britain, with many relics remaining today, including parts of the original Chester Roman walls, parts of a hypocaust system from a Roman bathhouse, and a strongroom from the 'principia', as well as the street pattern at the 'cross' where the four main streets intersect and, controversially, half of its original amphitheatre, with the other half built over.
Parts of the Roman quay wall of the port can still be seen under the medieval walls at the race course. It has been suggested that this quay wall formed a platform for a jetty which stretched out across the River to allow ships to dock at low tide.
Later on in the Fortresses history settlements began to develop outside the Fortress walls between the west wall and the port area near the River. Also Mansion buildings were created for wealthy Romans outside the Walls. An example of which was discovered on Castle Street. Roman shops and workshops lined the incoming roads and to the south as far away as modern day Eccleston. A bath complex was established outiside the Fortress walls on the modern Watergate Street under the site now occupied by Sedan House.
By Roman law, the dead were buried outside the Fortress in cemeteries along the incoming roads to the north and east. Some were cremated and buried in urns others buried in stone lined tombs. Elaborate monuments lined the roads. Sometime in the Roman period these monuments were broken up and used to repair the Fortress walls. During the nineteenth century these tombstones were recovered from the north wall and now form the best collection of Roman tombstones in the UK. They are now located in the Grosvenor Museum.
The Roman Fortress was occupied up to the Fourth Century, Roman coins have been found in the area dating up to this time. The Fortress was described as waste land in the sixth century. It is thought that some Roman building remained standing in to the Norman period, this is the reason why Northgate Street is dog legged in shape, a massive column base of the Roman ‘principia’ can be seen through the floor in the shop ‘Blacks’. Much of the Roman masonry was robbed out and reused in later periods.
A recent Timewatch investigation by the BBC speculated that, from the size and scale of the fort, had the Roman Empire not begun to collapse, Deva would have become the Roman capital of Britain and a launch post for invasions on Ireland. In fact, recent discoveries of a fort in Ireland suggest that at least one foray was made.
Despite stories to the contrary, the weir above the Old Dee Bridge was not built by the Romans but by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester between 1077 and 1101 to hold water for his river mills. The purpose of the weir on the river was to keep water levels high for these mills, one of which gave rise to the traditional song "Miller of Dee". It also prevents the salty tidal waters from entering the Dee fresh water basin.
Having read Gildas, Bede mistakenly located the Roman martyrs, Julius and Aaron, in Deva rather than Isca Silurum.