originating
from trade with the fortress. The fortress was 20% larger than other fortresses
in Britannia built around the same time at York (Eboracum) and Caerleon (Isca
Augusta); this has led to the suggestion that the fortress, rather than London
(Londinium), was intended to become the capital of the Roman province of
Britannia Superior. The civilian amphitheatre, which was built in the 1st
century, could seat between 8,000 and 10,000 people. It is the largest known
military amphitheatre in Britain, and is also a Scheduled Monument. The Minerva
Shrine in the Roman quarry is the only rock cut Roman shrine still in situ in
Britain. The fortress was garrisoned by the legion until at least the late 4th
century. Although the army had abandoned the fortress by 410 when the Romans
retreated from Britannia, the Romano-British civilian settlement continued
(probably with some Roman veterans staying behind with their wives and
children) and its occupants probably continued to use the fortress and its
defences as protection from raiders from the Irish Sea.
Medieval
Chester was captured from the Britons by the Kingdom of Northumbria after
the brutal and decisive Battle of Chester in the early 7th century. Deverdoeu
was still one of two Welsh language names for Chester in the late 12th century;
its other and more enduring Welsh name was Caerlleon, literally ‘the
fortress-city of the legions’, a name identical with that of the Roman fortress
at the other end of the Welsh Marches at Caerleon in Monmouthshire, namely Isca
Augusta. The modern Welsh name is the shortened form, Caer. The early Old English
speaking Anglo Saxon settlers used a name which had the same meaning,
Legacæstir, which was current until the 11th century, when, in a further
parallel with Welsh usage, the first element fell out of use and the simplex
name Chester emerged. From
