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| geography of the roman empire | |
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The vici differed from the planned cilivian towns or Civitates that were laid out as official local economic and administrative centres, the Colonia e which were settlements of retired troops or the formal political entity created from an existing settlement, called a Municipium . Unplanned, and originally lacking any public administrative buildings, they had no specific legal status like other settlements and developed on order to extract the wages from Roman troops with little to otherwise distract them when off duty. As with most Garrison towns they provided entertainment and supplies for the troops but many also developed prestigious industries especially metal and glassworking. Initially quite ephemeral, many vici were transitory sites that followed a mobile unit, once a permanent garrison was established they grew into larger townships. Often the number of official civitates and coloniae were not enough to settle everyone who wished to live in a town and so the vicii also attracted a wider range of residents with some becoming chartered towns where no other existed nearby. Some, such as that at Housesteads outgrew their forts altogether especially once soldiers were permitted to marry in the third century. Early vici had no civilian administration and were under the direct control of the Roman military commander. Those that attracted significant numbers of Roman Citizen s were later permitted to form local councils and some such as the vicus at York grew into regional centres and even provincial capitals. REFERENCE Wacher, John; The Towns of Roman Britain. Routledge (UK) 1996. ISBN 0-71-347319-3 |
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