Deva Victrix

Deva Victrix, or simply 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.

Foundation of the fortress

Roman Antefix

Deva 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 'castrum, castra' which is present in many other cities that were once Roman towns and means 'a fort'.

The Roman name for Chester 'Deva' was pronounced 'Deewa'. The name comes from 'Goddess', and the Roman fortress was named after the Goddess of the River Dee. (The Latin for 'Goddess' is 'dea, deae')

There is an alternative source for the naming of Chester. This suggests that the Roman name for the fortress built at the head of the Dee estuary was indeed Deva, but that it was adopted directly from the British name of the river

Construction of the fortress

An original section of the Roman Fortress wall is visible from the Northgate

Foundations of the Roman South-East Corner Tower

A Roman Tomb Stone

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 [1], 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 were 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. 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.

The timber fortress would have looked like the one reconstructed at Lunt Roman Fort.

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.

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.

File:Romanquay.jpg

The Roman Quay Wall

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.

Although both Gildas and Bede located the Roman martyrs, Julius and Aaron, in the 'City of the Legions', this is generally identified as Isca Augusta (Caerleon) rather than Deva, because of the chapels there dedicated to the two saints from at least medieval times.

Legionary Baths

Remains of the Baths

Like most Roman settlements Deva Victrix had a large legionary bath complex for the soldiers to wash and to use for leisure time. The remains on the east side of Bridge Street were largely destroyed during the construction of the Grosvenor Shopping Mall. It has been estimated that the baths used between 500,000 and 750,000 liters of water a day, which was supplied from the legionary springs in Boughton. Water was piped in large lead pipes underground from a branch off the main aqueduct near the Eastgate, down hill to the baths on Bridge Street. The water was then held in large tanks with concrete foundations, and then fed through the complex. Waste water would have been fed downhill using gravity to the river. The water was fed through 24 hours a day. The bath complex consisted of an exercise hall, courtyard, and three Turkish baths with basins and plunge pools. The complex was warmed by a Hypocaust under floor heating system, fed by three furnaces. The ceiling of the baths, themselves were domed with lines of terracotta tubes to support the structure. Part of the Roman Hypocaust remain in situ under the Mall and can be viewed from the cellar of the restaurant on 39 Bridge Street. The remains consist of a number of local sandstone pillars on a concrete base supporting a buried Roman floor. Also remaining in situ is part of a fine Roman mosaic floor pictured above. It is located under St. Michaels arcade on the bridge street entrance. It is known that the bath complex stood for a long time after being abandoned by the Romans. When part of the site was excavated during the demolition of the Feathers Hotel, the floor was found intact with 0.4 meter covering with dark soil from the Saxon period, followed by remains of the collapsed roof. Five columns from the exercise hall with parts of another hypocaust can be viewed in the Roman gardens off Pepper Street.

Legionary Quarry

The Minerva Shrine

The Roman fortress of Deva was constructed of local sandstone which was quarried from across the river to the south of the fortress. Traces of the quarry can still be seen today in Handbridge. A large amount of sandstone was taken and used in the construction of the fortress wall and the many buildings inside. On the old quarry face near an old ford was carved an image of the Roman goddess Minerva. It may have been carved by the workmen of the quarry for protection. The figure can just about be seen today holding a spear and a shield with an owl above the left shoulder to symbolise wisdom. There is also a carving of an altar were offerings were left. It is thought that the shrine was used by travelers crossing the ford before going into the fortress from the south. The shrine is unique in Britain because it is the only rock cut Roman shrine still in situ in the country.

Amphitheatre

Foundation Stones for the grander second Amphitheatre outer buttress

Chester's Roman Amphitheatre

Excavations have shown that Deva's amphitheatre had two phases of construction. The first was constructed from timber soon after the foundation of the fortress, and measured 75 m along the major axis and 67 m along the minor axis. It was replaced by an amphitheatre made from stone and measured 95.7 m along the major axis and 87.2 m along the minor axis. The second phase is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain.

Recently it has been discovered that Deva's amphitheatre had two phases of construction, both of stone, a point argued by ex-city archaeologist Keith Matthews. Before this discovery, it was argued that there was an earlier wooden structure, that was replaced by a later stone structure. It has now been discovered that a small stone amphitheatre was constructed first with wooden seating, this first amphitheatre has been dated to around the reign of emperor Vespasian, by the discovery of a single Roman coin found in a sand surface outside the first amphitheatres stone wall. This amphitheatre was then later replaced with a much larger and grander amphitheatre, with stone buttresses and arches. It would have been an impressive sight when viewed from the river below.

Evidence for gladiatorial combat have also been found in the shape of part of a gladius sword handle. Also parts of a Roman bowl showing scenes from a gladiator fight have been found. Also discovered was a stone block with an anchor point for a chain. It has been speculated that wild animals or indeed people would have been chained to this block during the 'spectacular'.

It has been recently proposed to turn the amphitheatre into an open air concert venue.

Capital of Britannia?

In 1939, a strange Elliptical Building was partially uncovered behind Chester's market hall. This building is unique in the Roman Empire, not even an example of this type of building exists in Rome itself.

Latest studies suggest that this building might have been planned as the residence of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the first governor of Britannia with Deva as the capital of the province. Instead, the work was stopped and the building was never completed.

The Elliptical Building should perhaps be viewed in conjunction with a number of other features of the legionary fortress at Chester which set it apart from contemporary establishments, not the least of which is the fact that it is 20% larger than the other early Flavian legionary fortresses at York and Caerleon.

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.

References

Bibliography

• Carrington, P (ed.) (2002). Deva Victrix: Roman Chester Re-assessed. Chester: Chester Archaeological Society. ISBN 095070749X. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Thompson (1959). Deva Roman Chester. Chester: Grosvenor Museum. {{cite book}}: Text "F. H." ignored (help)
• Windle (1903). Chester. Chester: S.R. Publishers. ISBN 0 85409 591 8. {{cite book}}: Text "Bertram C. A." ignored (help)