Deva Victrix

Put your hand flat against the wall beside you. The stone is a soft, rusty red, slightly gritty, and cool even on a warm afternoon. This is local sandstone, cut from the ground around Chester. Some of the blocks in the northern and eastern stretches of the city walls were laid by Roman soldiers almost two thousand years ago. You are standing on the edge of Deva Victrix, one of the great military bases of Roman Britain.

The name comes in two parts. Deva is the Roman name for the River Dee, which curves around the southern edge of the city. The river itself was probably linked to a Celtic goddess. Victrix means victorious. It comes from the Twentieth Legion, known as Valeria Victrix, which made this place its home for most of the Roman period. So the name means something close to the victorious fortress on the Dee.

The Romans arrived here in the 70s AD, during the reign of the emperor Vespasian. The first garrison was a different legion, the Second Adiutrix, made up partly of men raised from the fleet. Later, the Twentieth Legion moved in and stayed. For more than three centuries, this fortress held around five thousand professional soldiers. Behind them came traders, families, craftsmen, and everyone else who follows an army and its wages.

Here is the first surprise. Deva was larger than the other legionary fortresses in Britain, noticeably bigger than those at York and Caerleon. Nobody knows for certain why. Some historians suggest it was planned as a headquarters for the governor of the province. Others think it was a base for a possible invasion of Ireland, which lies across the sea to the west. Both ideas are theories, not documented fact. But the extra space is real, and archaeologists still debate it.

That extra space held one of the strangest buildings in the Roman world. Excavations found a large oval structure near the centre of the fortress, now called the Elliptical Building. It had a courtyard ringed by small rooms, with a fountain or basin in the middle. Its purpose is still unclear. It was started, left unfinished for many years, and completed much later. No other legionary fortress has anything quite like it.

Now walk the streets in your mind, or with your feet. The four main roads of modern Chester are Northgate Street, Eastgate Street, Watergate Street, and Bridge Street. They meet at a central crossroads called the Cross. That pattern is Roman. The legion laid out its streets in a grid, with gates in each side of the defences. Today's shoppers follow the same lines that soldiers marched along. The medieval timber galleries called the Rows sit on top of this ancient plan.

The Eastgate is a good example. The ornate clock that crowns it today dates from Queen Victoria's reign. But it stands on the site of the Roman east gate. The main road from the fortress ran out through this point towards the rest of the province. Every gate you pass through on the walls carries this double history — a Roman entrance under a much later structure.

Just outside the southeast corner of the walls lies the amphitheatre. It is the largest stone amphitheatre yet found in Britain. Soldiers trained here, and crowds watched displays and contests. Only around half of it has been uncovered. The rest still lies under a historic building and its grounds next door. Stand at the edge and you can see where the curve of seating simply disappears beneath later walls. Excavations have found weapons, coins, and traces of an earlier timber arena.

Next to the amphitheatre sits a small public space called the Roman Gardens. This is not an original Roman garden. It is a modern display of pieces recovered from across the city. Columns, carved stones, and fragments of buildings have been set among the lawns and paths. You can also see a reconstructed hypocaust, the Roman underfloor heating system. Hot air from a furnace flowed through the gaps between short stone pillars and warmed the floor above.

The second surprise is across the river, in a park called Edgar's Field in Handbridge. There, carved directly into a face of natural rock, is a Roman shrine to Minerva, goddess of wisdom and crafts. Weathering has softened the figure badly. Even so, it is a rare survivor. Roadside shrines like this were common in the Roman world, but very few remain in their original position. This one has stayed in place for close to two thousand years.

For the people of Deva, the best record is in the Grosvenor Museum, inside the city. It holds a large collection of Roman tombstones. Many were found built into the northern wall, where later repairers reused them as ordinary building stone. That reuse protected them. The carvings show soldiers, women, children, and freed slaves, often with their names and ages. Some show a figure reclining at a funeral meal. These are real people who lived and died in this place.

The legions eventually left Britain, around the end of the fourth century and the start of the fifth. The fortress did not vanish. Its walls were patched, extended, and rebuilt through the medieval period. Its streets kept their shape. Stone from its buildings went into churches and houses. In many basements and cellars across the centre, Roman masonry still sits under modern floors, sometimes on view to the public.

So take one more look around you. The red stone under your hand, the straight run of the street ahead, the low curve of the amphitheatre beyond the wall — these all belong to the same plan. As you walk on, notice where the ground rises or falls slightly. Notice where the old stone changes colour or size. Deva Victrix is not a single ruin to visit and leave. It is the outline that Chester still lives inside.