vicus

Vicus (Latin vīcus) is a Latin noun meaning village, neighborhood, or street. In the Roman world, it designated both a small urban district within a city and a civilian settlement in the vicinity of a fort or beyond city walls, often growing around roads and markets. Inside large cities, vici were recognized districts, sometimes with their own local leadership and religious or social associations; the precise status varied by time and region. In military contexts, a vicus referred to the civilian settlement that grew up outside a legionary fortress (castrum), inhabited by families of soldiers, traders, and craftsmen, and providing services to the garrison. These settlements could be long-lived and may later be incorporated into urban boundaries.

In archaeology and historical geography, vicus is used as a technical label for informal or semi-formal settlements that cluster along roads or at the margins of towns, as well as for rural but connected hamlets in the countryside near a town. Excavated vici reveal residential houses, workshops, wells, and streets, illustrating everyday life beyond the formal city plan.

The term is common in Latin inscriptions and textual descriptions of Roman towns and military sites, and it remains a standard term in the study of Roman urbanism and provincial settlements. The concept highlights the social and economic complexity of Roman spatial organization, which extended well beyond the walls of municipia and coloniae.