Deva Victrix

Deva Victrix

A model of Deva at the Grosvenor Museum, rendered as it probably appeared
Shown within England
Location	Chester, Cheshire, England
Region	Britannia
Coordinates	53°11′29″N 02°53′34″W / 53.19139°N 2.89278°W / 53.19139; -2.89278Coordinates: 53°11′29″N 02°53′34″W / 53.19139°N 2.89278°W / 53.19139; -2.89278
Type	Fortification and settlement
History
Founded	Mid 70s AD
Periods	Roman Imperial

Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of the modern city of Chester. The fortress was built by the Legio II Adiutrix in the AD 70s as the Roman army advanced north against the Brigantes, and rebuilt completely over the next few decades by the Legio XX Valeria Victrix. In the early 3rd century the fortress was again rebuilt. The legion probably remained at the fortress until the late 4th or early 5th century, upon which it fell into disuse.

A civilian settlement, or canabae, grew around the fortress. Chester Roman Amphitheatre south-west of the fortress is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain. The civilian settlement remained after the Romans departed, eventually becoming the present-day city of Chester. There were peripheral settlements around Roman Deva, including Boughton, the source of the garrison's water supply, and Handbridge, the site of a sandstone quarry and the Minerva Shrine. The shrine is the only in situ, rock-cut Roman shrine in Britain.

The fortress contained barracks, granaries, headquarters, military baths, and an unusual elliptical building which had it been finished may have been intended to act as the governor of Britain's headquarters. Several factors including the uniqueness of the elliptical building, the method of construction, and the unusual size of the fortress – 20% larger than other Roman fortresses in Britain – suggest that it may have been intended as the base for a potential invasion of Ireland, and perhaps eventually to become the capital of the unified British Isles under Rome.

According to the 1st and 2nd century geographer Ptolemy, Deva was in the lands of the Cornovii. Their land bordered that of the Brigantes in the north and the Ordovices in the west and included parts of what is now Cheshire, Shropshire, and north Wales. When the Romans' treaty with the Brigantes – who occupied most of what is now Northern England – failed the Romans embarked on military conquest of the area. The campaigns were initially led by Sextus Julius Frontinus and later Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Their expansion into the north of Britannia during the reign of Vespasian meant that the Romans needed a new military base. Chester was a strategic site for a fortress, commanding access to the sea via the River Dee and dividing the Brigantes from the Ordovices.Legio II Adiutrix was sent to Chester and began the construction of a legionary fortress in the mid AD 70s.