Canaba


A Canaba was the Latin term for a hut or hovel and was later used typically to mean a town that emerged as a civilian settlement in the vicinity of a Roman legionary fortress.
A settlement that grew up outside a smaller Roman fort was called a 'vicus'. Canabae were also often divided into vici.
Permanent forts attracted military dependants and civilian contractors who serviced the base and needed housing;
traders, artisans, sellers of food and drink, prostitutes, and also unofficial wives of soldiers and their children and hence most forts had vici or canabae. Many of these communities became towns through synoecism with other communities, some in use today.
Some Canabae of Legionary Fortresses: