Vici - encyclopedia article about Vici.

For the early Peruvian culture, see .

In the history of the Roman empire, a vicus (pl. vici) was an ad hoc provincial civilian settlement that sprang up close to and because of a nearby official Roman site, usually a military garrison or state-owned mining operation.

The vici differed from the planned civilian towns (civitates) that were laid out as official, local economic and administrative centres, the coloniæ which were settlements of retired troops, or the formal political entities created from existing settlements, the municipia.

Unplanned, and originally lacking any public administrative buildings, they had no specific legal status (unlike other settlements) and developed in order to profit from Roman troops with little to distract them otherwise 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 glass working.

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 coloniæ were not enough to settle everyone who wished to live in a town and so the vici also attracted a wider range of residents, with some becoming chartered towns where no other existed nearby. Some, such as that at Vercovicium (Housesteads) outgrew their forts altogether, especially in the third century once soldiers were permitted to marry.

Early vici had no civilian administration and were under the direct control of the Roman military commander. Those that attracted significant numbers of Roman citizens were later permitted to form local councils and some, such as the vicus at Eboracum (York), grew into regional centres and even provincial capitals.

“Vicus” is also a word of complex meaning in the first … and the last … sentence from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.

"... riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”

Because Joyce's sentences are packed with obscure allusions and puns in dozens of different languages, it remains impossible to offer an undisputed and definitive synopsis.

“vicus” may refer to a “vicious circle” as a situation in which a cause produces a result that itself produces the original cause. [1]

"vicus" may also refer to Giambattista Vico (1668-1744). Vico believed in a theory of cyclical history. He believed that the world was coming to the end of the last of three ages, these being the age of gods, the age of heroes, and the age of humans. This opening also contributes to the effect of Joyce's novel as a whole, since it begins and ends with "riverrun" on the lips.

Reference

Wacher, John (1996). The Towns of Roman Britain. London: Routledge.

The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. This article however is about the latter.
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worldwide view of the subject.
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Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam.
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civitas (pl. civitates) mainly referred to the condition of Roman citizenship. It was also used to describe a type of settlement.

As the empire grew, inhabitants of the outlying Roman provinces would either be classed as dediticii
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A Roman colonia (plural coloniae) was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.
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A municipium (pl. municipia) belonged to the second highest class of Roman cities, being inferior in status to the colonia. The first municipium was Tusculum. The distinguishing characteristic of the municipium was self-governance.
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For other uses of Garrison, see Garrison (disambiguation).

Garrison (various spellings) (from the French garrison, itself from the verb garnir
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Vercovicium (or Housesteads Roman Fort) was an auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall, in the Roman province of Britannia. Its ruins are located at Housesteads (grid reference NY790688 ) in the civil parish of Bardon Mill in the English county of Northumberland.
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Housesteads is a former farm in the civil parish of Bardon Mill in the English county of Northumberland. Its lands include the ruins of the Roman fort of Vercovicium.

Border reivers

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Citizenship in the time of Ancient Rome was a privileged status afforded to certain individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.

It is hard to offer meaningful generalities across the entire Roman period, as the nature and availability of citizenship was
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Eboracum was a fort and town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as York, located in the English county of Yorkshire. The name may have been derived from another Roman city in the Iberian peninsula called Ebora (current day Evora in Portugal).
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City of York
The Guildhall, York

Arms of City of York Council
York shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
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Vicus
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See also

Reference

Border reivers

Vicus (redirected from Vici)

See also

Reference

Border reivers

Vicus
(redirected from Vici)