The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

H i s t o r i c a l Ba c k g r o u n d 79
a round legi on a ry fortresses and the vi ci a round the small er forts has been
demonstrated archaeologically in many provinces. Some of the civil settlements
were very close to the forts, and others were situated at some distance. For exa
m p l e , at Lambaesis in North Af ri c a , the c a n a bae and the legi on a ry fortre s s
were abo ut a mile apart , while at Ca rnu n tum on the Danu be , the civil set t l ement
was wrapped around the fortress on three sides. Eventually, a second civil
settlement was established nearby, at the modern town of Petronell.
The archaeological evidence from the vici and canabae can show the number
of buildings, their extent and orientation, and on occasion archaeology can give
hints as to their purpose. Although it cannot finally prove who lived in them,
wh ere they came from , or how they made their livi n gs , a stu dy by Som m er
(1984) ten t a tively answers these qu e s ti on s . Some of the bu i l d i n gs of the vi ci
around Roman forts are so similar to the internal structures of the forts themselves
that it has been postulated that it was the army that built them. Extrapolating
from this, we can assume that the fort commander had complete jurisdiction
over the inhabitants. Tacitus (Histories 4.22) relates that when the legionary
com m a n ders at the fortress of Vetera in Germ a ny needed to stren g t h en thei r
ramparts, they demolished buildings that had been put up in close proximity to
the fortress, to prevent them from being of use to the enemy.
A few inscri pti ons show that the people who dwelt in the vi ci devel oped a
s ense of corpora te iden ti ty in that they referred to them s elves as vi c a n i , or “t h e
vi c u s peop l e ,” who on occ a s i onacted toget h erto make dec i s i on s . The inhabi t a n t s
of the c a n a ba e a ppoi n ted m a gi s tri , c u ra tors , and aed i l e s , and there were publ i c
bu i l d i n gs su ch as baths, tem p l e s , m a rketp l ace s , and even amph i t h e a ters . The rel
a ti onship bet ween the people who clu s tered around the forts and the soldiers
who manned them was prob a bly com p l ex . It is assu m ed that some of the inhabitants
of the vi ci and c a n a ba e were the wom en folk and of fs pring of the soldiers .
By law, s o l d i ers were forbi d den to marry, in order to disco u ra ge any com m i tm
ent to civi l i a n s , but most soldiers non et h eless form ed assoc i a ti ons with loc a l
wom en that were to l era ted and given tacit recogn i ti on by the aut h ori ti e s .
In some cases, the vicus was expanded into a small town, and even when the
fort was abandon ed and the soldiers moved on to another loc a ti on , the town
s om etimes rem a i n ed in occ u p a ti on . It cannot be dem on s tra ted wh et h er the
same inhabitants rem a i n ed , or wh et h er new people moved in and the occ upants
of the old vicus followed the army unit. In some cases, the legal status of
the existing vicus or legionary canabae was upgraded by the reigning emperor to
that of a mu n i c i p a l i ty (mu n i ci p i u m)oracol o n i a ( Mac Mu ll en , 1 9 6 3 ) . Tra ja n
made the civil settlement at Xanten in Germany into a colonia; Hadrian made
the canabae at Carnuntum into a municipium; and Severus upgraded it to colonial
status.
The protective role of the Roman army is the least documented aspect of the
military presence in any province, though the benefits of the Roman peace are