Deva Victrix, or simply Deva, was a legionary fortress and town in the Roman province of Britannia. The settlement evolved into Chester, the county town of Cheshire, England. The fortress was built initially by the Legio II Adiutrix in the AD 70s as the Roman army advanced north against the Brigantes, but completed over the next few decades by the Legio XX Valeria Victrix.
Several factors including the presence of an elliptical building unique in legionary fortresses, 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 Britain. The fortress contained barracks, granaries, military headquarters, military baths, and an unusual elliptical building that may have acted as the governor of Britain's headquarters. The fortress was rebuilt in stone at the end of the 1st century AD when it was occupied by the Legio XX Valeria Victrix, and again in the early 3rd century. The legion probably remained at the fortress until it eventually fell into disuse in the late 4th or early 5th century.
A civilian settlement – or canabae – grew around the fortress and was one of the factors leading to the construction of an amphitheatre to the south east of the fortress. Chester Roman Amphitheatre could have seated between 8,000 and 10,000 people, 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.
Read more about Deva Victrix: Canabae Legionis, Legionary Quarry, Legionary Baths, Market Hall Inscription, Amphitheatre, Elliptical Building, Capital of Britannia?