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detained by the settlements near camps or legion auxiliary camps (canabae). The
situation for this type of settlements is clearly made more visible archaeologically.
The
vican settlements
near the forts were set in the neighborhood or very near easy
acces roads. Their orientation was established in the space between
porta praetoria
and
porta
principalis sinistra
of the Roman fort. Usually, though, a military vicus
develops along the Roman fort acces with the existence of spreading possibilities
according to field conditions. Subsequently, the eastward expansion with approx.
20–24 m of the vicus was done by changing the main communication pathway and
restore wooden housing by building in river stone and mortar. The plan of such
settlements is predetermined, but still different from that of an urban settlement.
Research conducted at Tibiscum led to the conclusion that the first vicus had an
area of approx. 150 × 150 m and was close in size to the small fort.
Tibiscum lots granted to residents were estimated at sizes approx. 32 in
length and 8–9 m in width, being designed in order to allow determination of the
place of the house, but also the possibility of craft outfits as annexes (workshops
for pottery, hardware, metal processing, etc.)
The buildings originally built of wood due to their location had a narrow
street gable and in depth development. By doing this, these buildings offered
accommodation and space for workshops, stores, but not for agriculture. In general,
little information is kept on some existing public buildings inside the military vicus
alongside private constructions.
Bathing facilities (
thermele)
inside
vici militares
were the military ones used
by the population found within the settlement.
In a military vicus organization, like any settlements, the temple of the
protective deity of the fort and settlement could not miss. In this case, the supreme
divinity was Juppiter and the Capitoline Triad representing the state official cult.
Even if the temple was originally raised by the army, later the inhabitants of the
vican settlement, generic appointed as
veterani et cives
, often invoked in inscriptions
the Capitoline Triad. The most important findings in this regard are those of Micia,
where, even if the temple building was
not yet
discovered, many inscriptions were
dedicated to Iupiter.
Instead at Tibiscum, in the building marked III of the vicus, due to the
discovery of a head of a statue dedicated to Jupiter and a fragmented small votive
column it is assumed that this building was a temple. The building dimensions
range from 16 × 16.5 m, consisting of three rooms located on the west side of the
yard to the east. Entrance to the building is from the main access road. A small
sacellum
dedicated to Jupiter apparently existed in the north west area outside the
great fort.
Cult edifices discovered so far in vican settlements found in south west
Dacia, have a special characteristic determined by the place of provenance of the
military unit, thus of a part of the population found in vicus. We fiind in
Tibiscum
the temple of
Apollo Conservator
(of the unit
cohors I Thracum Sagittariorum
)
the same at
Praetorium
(Mehadia) (for
cohors III Delmatarum
), a divinity linked
to the Balkans, the place of provennace for both auxiliary units. In the case of