The Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 337: A Sourcebook

142 The Roman Army
informal administration appointed by the legate, under his supervision,
and solely responsible to him. There seems to have been no distinction
in the canabae between veteran soldiers and civilian Roman citizens,
but non-citizens would have had no part in the administration.
Expansion of the canabae sometimes led to the development of an
adjacent settlement, perhaps related to an existing native community.
The composite civilian settlement then might progress to municipal or
even colonial status. Carnuntum was situated on the Danube in a
strategically important position where the east–west route along the
river met the south–north route from Aquileia. A military camp was
first established here by Tiberius, and by the end of Trajan’s reign the
Legion XIV Gemina formed the garrison, where it was to remain as
long as Roman control lasted. After the division of Pannonia into upper
and lower provinces, Carnuntum became the chief settlement of Upper
Pannonia and the seat of the governor. The canabae grew up in an
unsystematic fashion on three sides of the military camp, close to which
an amphitheatre and forum were built. Then a separate civilian
settlement developed to the west of the camp near the modern town of
Petronell, with several large buildings including an amphitheatre with
a capacity of about 13,000. In AD 124 during his visit to Pannonia,
Hadrian granted municipal status to Carnuntum, and in AD 194
Septimius Severus, who as governor of Upper Pannonia had launched
his successful attempt on the purple from here, made it the colony
Septimia Carnuntum.
At Chester the canabae were established close to the legionary camp,
with some civilian buildings grouped along the road from the east gate,
others on the west side between the defences and the river Dee, and a
limited settlement in the southern sector. The amphitheatre outside the
camp could accommodate 7,000 spectators and clearly served the legion
and most of the civilian population; the civilians also shared the water
supply by tapping into the fortress aqueduct. By the end of the first
century a sizable settlement had developed and in the first half of the
second century there was a significant improvement in living conditions,
as timber buildings were gradually replaced by stone, and more
elaborate houses were built, some containing private bath suites. But
there is no definite evidence that Chester was elevated to municipal or
colonial rank (Mason 1987).
The advancement of Carnuntum to municipal rank by Hadrian
shows that there was no objection in principle to the development of
communities of this status in close proximity to a military establishment.
It may be an accident of our evidence (from inscriptions) that such
developments appear most commonly in the third century. There is