Vicus in the context of "Genius loci"

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⭐ Core Definition: Vicus

In Ancient Rome, the Latin term vicus (plural vici) designated a village within a rural area (pagus) or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of officials who oversaw local matters. These administrative divisions are recorded as still in effect at least until the mid-4th century.

The word "vicus" was also applied to the smallest administrative unit of a provincial town within the Roman Empire, referring to an ad hoc provincial civilian settlement that sprang up close to and because of a nearby military fort or state-owned mining operation.

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👉 Vicus in the context of Genius loci

In classical Roman religion, a genius loci (pl.: genii locorum) was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl), or snake. Many Roman altars found throughout the Western Roman Empire were dedicated to a particular genius loci. The Roman imperial cults of the Emperor and the imperial house developed in part in connection with the sacrifices made by neighborhood associations (vici) to the local genius. These 265 local districts had their cult organised around the Lares Compitales (guardian spirits or lares of the crossroads), which the emperor Augustus transformed into Lares Augusti along with the Genius Augusti. The emperor's genius is then regarded as the genius loci of the Roman Empire as a whole.

Roman examples of these genii can be found, for instance, at the church of St. Giles, Tockenham, Wiltshire, England, where the genius loci is depicted as a relief in the wall of a Norman church built of Roman material. This shows "a youthful and curly-haired Roman Genius worked in high relief, holding a cornucopia in his left hand and a patera in his right", which previously has been "erroneously identified as Asclepius".

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Vicus in the context of Turicum

Turicum was a Gallo-Roman settlement at the lower end of Lake Zurich, and precursor of the city of Zurich. It was situated within the Roman province of Germania Superior and near the border to the province of Raetia; there was a tax-collecting point for goods traffic on the waterway WalenseeObersee-Lake ZurichLimmatAareRhine.

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Vicus in the context of Roman Mogontiacum

Mogontiacum (also Moguntiacum) is the Latin name of today's city of Mainz, which it bore during its almost 500 years as part of the Roman Empire. Mogontiacum had its origins in the legionary camp built by Drusus in 13/12 BCE, which was strategically located on a hill [de] above the Rhine and opposite the mouth of the Main on the Roman Rhine valley road [de].

The civilian settlements (vici) in the vicinity of the camp, which spread down the Rhine, quickly grew together to form a larger, urbanised settlement. However, unlike Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) or Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Mogontiacum was primarily a military centre until the second half of the 4th century and was apparently not a colonia either. As a result, the city never had the urban character of the other large Roman cities in Germany. Nevertheless, several monumental buildings were also erected here, as Mogontiacum was the provincial capital of the Roman province of Germania Superior with the seat of the governor as of the year 90 at the latest. After the middle of the 3rd century, when the Decumatian Fields were cleared, Mogontiacum once again became a border town and was devastated several times over the next 150 years by members of various Germanic peoples. After the end of the Roman period, but at the latest around 470, Mogontiacum belonged to the Frankish Kingdom after a brief transitional phase.

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Vicus in the context of Isca Augusta

Isca, variously specified as Isca Augusta or Isca Silurum, was the site of a Roman legionary fortress and settlement or vicus, the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day suburban town of Caerleon in the north of the city of Newport in South Wales. The site includes Caerleon Amphitheatre and is protected by Cadw.

Headquarters of the Legion "II Augusta", which took part in the invasion under Emperor Claudius in 43, Isca is uniquely important for the study of the conquest, pacification and colonisation of Britannia by the Roman army. It was one of only three permanent legionary fortresses in later Roman Britain and, unlike the other sites at Chester and York, its archaeological remains lie relatively undisturbed beneath fields and the town of Caerleon and provide a unique opportunity to study the Roman legions in Britain. Excavations continue to unearth new discoveries; in the late 20th century a complex of very large monumental buildings outside the fortress between the River Usk and the amphitheatre was uncovered. This new area of the canabae was previously unknown.

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Vicus in the context of Pagus

In ancient Rome, the Latin word pagus (plural pagi) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (vici), and strongholds (oppida) serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geographical term. From the reign of Diocletian (284–305 AD) onwards, the pagus referred to the smallest administrative unit of a province. These geographical units were used to describe territories in the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, without any political or administrative meaning.

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Vicus in the context of Vindonissa

Vindonissa (from a Gaulish toponym in *windo- "white") was a Roman legion camp, vicus and later a bishop's seat at modern Windisch, Switzerland. The remains of the camp are listed as a heritage site of national significance. The city of Brugg hosts a small Roman museum, displaying finds from the legion camp.

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Vicus in the context of Canaba

A canaba (plural canabae) was the Latin term for a hut or hovel and was later (from the time of Hadrian) used typically to mean a town that emerged as a civilian settlement (canabae legionis) in the vicinity of a Roman legionary fortress (castrum).

A settlement that grew up outside a smaller Roman fort was called a vicus (village, plural vici). Canabae were also often divided into vici.

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