Camulodunum

Coordinates: 51°53′31″N 0°53′53″E / 51.89194°N 0.89806°E / 51.89194; 0.89806
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Camulodunum
Colchester's Roman town walls
Camulodunum is located in England
Camulodunum
Shown within England
Alternative nameCamulodunon, Colonia Claudia Victricensis, Colonia Victricensis
LocationColchester, Essex, England
RegionBritannia
Coordinates51°53′31″N 0°53′53″E / 51.89194°N 0.89806°E / 51.89194; 0.89806
TypeColonia
History
FoundedLate 1st century BC
PeriodsBritish Iron Age to Roman Empire
Site notes
OS grid reference: TL995255

Camulodunum (

Camulos"), capital of the Trinovantes and later the Catuvellauni tribes, it was first mentioned by name on coinage minted by the chieftain Tasciovanus some time between 20 and 10 BC.[5] The Roman town began life as a Roman legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by the Emperor Claudius.[5] After the early town was destroyed during the Iceni rebellion in AD 60/61, it was rebuilt, reaching its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.[5] During this time it was known by its official name Colonia Claudia Victricensis (COLONIA CLAVDIA VICTRICENSIS),[6] often shortened to Colonia Victricensis, and as Camulodunum, a Latinised version of its original Brythonic name.[7] The town was home to a large classical temple, two theatres (including Britain's largest), several Romano-British temples, Britain's only known chariot circus, Britain's first town walls, several large cemeteries and over 50 known mosaics and tessellated pavements.[2][3][5][8] It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height.[9]

Ptolemy names Camulodunum as being near Eboracum/York

In the second century AD

Geographia named the base of the Sixth Legion (who governed the Brigantes) a Northern Roman Britain tribe as being near Eboracum (which would eventually become York
). He called the Sixth Legion's base Camulodunum. [10] [11]

Camulodunon

Colchester is said to be the

mythical) Camelot of King Arthur,[15] though the name Camelot (first mentioned by the 12th century French Arthurian storyteller Chrétien de Troyes) is most likely a corruption of Camlann, a now unknown location first mentioned in the 10th century Welsh annalistic text Annales Cambriae, identified as the place where Arthur was slain in battle.[16]

Iron Age Camulodunon

The Iron Age site of Camulodunon

The earliest

Iron Age defensive site at Colchester is the Pitchbury Ramparts earthwork north of the town between West Bergholt and Great Horkesley.[5] The main earthwork defences of the Brythonic Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon were built later, beginning in the 1st century BC but most date from the 1st century AD.[5] They are considered the most extensive of their kind in Britain.[5][17] The defences consist of lines of ditches and ramparts, possibly palisaded with gateways, that mostly run parallel to each other in a north–south direction. The Iron Age settlement was protected by rivers on three sides, with the River Colne bounding the site to the north and east, and the Roman River valley forming the southern boundary; the earthworks were mostly designed to close off the western gap between these two river valleys.[5][18] Other earthworks close off eastern parts of the settlement. These earthworks gave the oppidum its Brythonic Celtic name – Camulodunon meant "the stronghold of Camulus", the British god of war.[5] Together they enclose an area of 1,000 ha (3.9 sq mi), much larger than the area enclosed by the Iron Age defences at Wheathampstead (35 ha, 0.14 sq mi).[19]

The main sites within the bounds of these defences are the Gosbecks farmstead, the Sheepen industrial area and the Lexden burials. The Gosbecks site consists of a large, high-status farmstead,

Amphorae containing imported goods from the continent have been found at Sheepen,[21] as have pieces of imported Samian pottery.[22]

Camulodunon
.

Just inside the earthworks, at Lexden, are located the burial mounds of the rulers of Camulodunon, which contain large amounts of grave goods including imported Roman material from Europe;[5] the largest of these mounds is the Lexden tumulus.[23][24] The Lexden area around the mounds contains several Iron Age cremation burial groups, including one containing the "Mirror burial", with other burials located around the Camulodunon site.[5] A large cluster of cremations from St. Clare road and Fitzwalter Road close to the Lexden Tumulus date to 50–10 BC.[19]

Aside from these main activity areas, the 1,000 ha area enclosed by the defensive earthworks and rivers mainly consisted of a network of droveways,

cattle rustling of valuable herds.[19] Camulodunon was surrounded by farmsteads like those at Abbotstone near Colchester Zoo and at Birch Quarry, many of which continued to exist on into the Roman period until at least the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.[19]

Iron Age salt works (known as

salt marshes close to Camulodunon in the Colne Estuary, on the Roman River near Fingringhoe, in Alresford Creek, on Mersea Island, the Pyefleet Channel, the Blackwater River and around the Tendring Peninsula.[25] Two large groups existed at Peldon and Tolleshunt D'Arcy.[26] Camulodunon may have been an at the centre of the local trade in this important preservative.[25]

Bronze coin of Cunobelin – note the letters CAMV for Camulodunon at left

Cunobelinus. Cunobelinus then succeeded his father at Verlamion, beginning the dominance of the Catuvellauni over the south-east.[27][28] Cunobelinus was friendly with Rome, marking his coins with the word REX and classical motifs rather than the traditional Gallo-Belgic designs. Archaeology shows an increase in imported luxury goods, probably through the Sheepen site port of Camulodunon, during his reign.[29] He was probably one of the British kings that Strabo says sent embassies to Augustus. Strabo reports Rome's lucrative trade with Britain; the island's exports included grain, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves and hunting dogs.[30] Iron ingots, slave chains and storage vessels discovered at the Sheepen site appear to confirm this trade with the Empire.[5]

Pre-Boudican Roman town

Claudian invasion

The Emperor Claudius personally oversaw the Roman attack on Camulodunon. The town was renamed Colonia Victricensis in honour of his triumph, and a Temple was built there to worship him. Its foundation vaults still survive beneath Colchester Castle.

The

Thames and then waiting for Claudius to cross the Channel. Claudius arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants,[34] leading the attack on Camulodunon. Caratacus fled the storming of the town, taking refuge with the Ordovices and Silures tribes in Wales and becoming a Welsh folk hero for his resistance to Rome.[5] The Roman historian Suetonius and Claudius' triumphal arch state that after this battle the British kings who had been under Cunobelinus’ sons’ control surrendered without further bloodshed, Claudius accepting their submission in Camulodunon.[35]

Roman fortress and early town

As the stronghold of a major tribe in the south-east, Camulodunum held strategic importance.

castrum, the first permanent legionary fortress to be built in Britain,[5] was established within the confines of Camulodunon (which was Latinised as Camulodunum) following the successful invasion in AD 43, and was home to the Twentieth Legion.[2] A smaller fort was built against the Iron Age earthworks close to the Gosbecks high-status farmstead, and was home to the Ala Primae Thracum ("First Wing of Thracians", a cavalry regiment) and the Cohors Primae Vangionum ("First Cohort of Vangiones", a mixed cavalry-infantry unit from Gaul).[36]

Figurines from a child's burial, pre-60/1

The legionary fortress was larger than a standard castrum, and included a large annex on its north-east side.

Century, with a large room for a centurion at one end of each block.[38] Larger buildings for military Tribunes have been excavated in the centre of the fort[38] The walls of the military buildings were built on mortared plinths called opus caementicium, with wooden and daub walls faced with keyed plaster.[38] Roman military equipment and weapons have been found from the fortress, including swords, armour and harness fittings.[3]

Plan of the Temple of Claudius at Colchester.

After the legion was withdrawn in c. AD 49, the legionary defences were dismantled and the fortress converted into a town, with many of the barrack blocks converted into housing.[5][7] Its official name became Colonia Victricensis, with discharged Roman soldiers making up the population; a bronze military diplomata (document formalising a soldier's retirement, citizen rights and land rights) for a legionary soldier called Saturninus has been found at the Sheepen site.[5] As a colonia (the only one in Britain at the time) its citizens held equal rights to Romans, and it was the principal city of Roman Britain.[5] Tacitus wrote that the town was "a strong colonia of ex-soldiers established on conquered territory, to provide a protection against rebels and a centre for instructing the provincials in the procedures of the law".[3] The Temple of Claudius, the largest classical style temple in Britain, was built there in the 50s and was dedicated to Emperor Claudius on his death in 54.[6][7] The podium, or foundation of the temple, was incorporated into the Norman castle, and represents "the earliest substantial stone building of Roman date visible in the country".[3] A monumental arch was built from tufa and Purbeck Marble at the western gate out of the town.[38] Tombs lined the roads out of the town, with several belonging to military veterans giving insights into the military units stationed in Britain during the post-Conquest period, such as:

LONGINVS.SDAPEZE
MATYCI.F.DVPLICARIVS.ALA.PRIMA.TRACVM.PAGO
SARDICA.ANNO.XL.AEROR.XV
HEREDES.EXS.TESTAM.F.C.
H S E
(Translated: Longinus Sdapeze, son of Matycus,
Sardica, who lived for forty years, with fifteen years paid service. His heirs set this up as stipulated in his will. He lies here.)[36]
M.FAVONI.M.F.POL.FACI
LIS.C.LEG.XX.VERECVND
VS.ET.NOVCIVS.LIB.POSVERVNT H S E
(Translated: For Marcus Favonius Facilis, son of Marcus, of the
freedmen have placed [this memorial]. He lies here.)[20]
D M AR... RE... VAL... COH I VA... QVI M... EX AERE COLLATO
(Translated: To the spirits of the departed and to Ar[...] Re[...] Val[...] of the First Cohort of Vangiones, who [...] former collector of taxes.)[36]
  • The tomb of another experienced centurion from Anatolia:
...LEG I (or II) ADIVTRICIS... ...AE BIS C ... ... BIS C LEG III AVG ... C LEG XX VAL VICTORIVNDVS NICAEA IN BITHYNIA MILITAVIT ANN ... VIXIT ANN ... ...
(Translated: [...] of Legio Primae Adiutrix [...] twice centurion [...] twice centurion of Legio Tertiae Augusta [...] centurion of Legio Vicesimae Valeria, Victoriundus, from Nicaea in Bithynia, with [...] years military service who lived for [...] years [...])[20]

By 60–61 the population may have been as high as 30,000.[40]

Iceni revolt

The head of a presumed equestrian statue of Claudius found in the River Alde at Rendham in Suffolk, believed to have been taken from the Temple of Claudius during Boudica's revolt.[5][41] British Museum, London.

The city was the capital of the Roman province of

Roman population, the city and surrounding territorium was also home to a large native population. Examples of cooperation between the two groups include the Romano-British Stanway Burials mounds[5][43] and the warrior graves of native elites from the 50s.[44][45] These graves represent members of the native aristocracy who have been Romanised.[26]

However tensions arose in 60/61 when the Roman authorities used the death of Prasutagus as a pretext for seizing the Iceni client state from his widow Boudica. The Iceni rebels were joined by the Trinovantes around Colonia Victricensis, who held several grudges against the Roman population of the town. These included the seizure of land for the colonia's veteran population, the use of labour to build the Temple of Claudius, and the sudden recall of loans given to the local elites by leading Romans (including Seneca and the Emperor), which had been needed to allow the locals to qualify for a position on the city council.[5][46] The Procurator Catus Decianus was especially despised.[2]

Tacitus recorded that certain ominous portents occurred in the town prior to the rebellion:

"[...]the statue of Victory fell down, its back turned as though in retreat from the enemy. Women roused into frenzy chanted of approaching destruction, and declared that the cries of the barbarians had been heard in the council-chamber, that the theatre had re-echoed with shrieks, that a reflection of the colonia, overthrown, had been seen in the Thames estuary. The sea appeared blood-red, and spectres of human corpses were left behind as the tide went out."[3]

As the symbol of Roman rule in Britain the city was the first target of the rebels, with its Temple seen in British eyes as the arx aeternae dominationis ("stronghold of everlasting domination") according to Tacitus.[3] He wrote that it was undefended by fortifications when it was attacked[46] with a garrison of only 200 members of the procurator's guard.[6] He wrote of a last stand at the Temple of Claudius:

"In the attack everything was broken down and burnt. The temple where the soldiers had congregated was besieged for two days and then sacked.".[3]

The rebels destroyed the city and slaughtered its population. Archaeologists have found layers of ash in the site of the city, suggesting that Boudica ordered her rebel army to burn the city to the ground.

Gaius Suetonius Paullinus finally defeated the uprising, the Procurator of the province moved his seat to the newly established commercial settlement of Londinium (London).[48]

Boudican destruction layer

Stylized statue of Boudica in Colchester, commemorating her sacking of the Roman town.

The destruction of the early town by the rebels has left a thick layer of ash, destroyed buildings and smashed pottery and glasswork across the town centre and at the Sheepen river port site outside the NW corner of the town. The destruction layer, also found at

archaeologists as it provides a snapshot of artifacts from 60, allowing typologies of finds to be tied into a historical timeline, for example in Samian production.[51] The rubble from the destruction was landscaped during the rebuilding of the town that took place in the years after the revolt.[52]

Colonia Victricensis in the second and third centuries

The Roman Colonia Victricensis in its wider landscape
Vatican Museum
, Rome.

Following the destruction of the Colonia and

Suetonius Paulinus’ crushing of the revolt the town was rebuilt on a larger scale and flourished,[20] growing larger in size than its pre-Boudican levels (to 108 acres/45 ha)[3] despite its loss of status to Londinium, reaching its peak in the Second and 3rd centuries.[5] The town's official name was Colonia Claudia Victricensis (City of Claudius’ Victory), but it was known colloquially by contemporaries (such as on the monument of Gnaeus Munatius Aurelius Bassus in Rome – see below) as Camulodunum or simply Colonia.[5]
The colonia became a large industrial centre, and was the largest, and for a short time the only, place in the province of Britannia where
samian ware was produced, along with glasswork and metalwork, and a coin mint.[5] Roman brick making and wine growing also took place in the area. Colonia Victricensis contained many large townhouses, with dozens of mosaics and tessellated pavements found, along with hypocausts and sophisticated waterpipes and drains.[5][53]

The colonia is mentioned by name several times by contemporaries, including in

The 2nd century tomb inscription for Gn. Munatius Bassus in Rome, which describes the name of the town and its Roman citizenship, reads:

GN.MVNATIVS.MF.PAL
AVRELIVS.BASSVS
PROCAVG
PRAEF.FABR.PRAEF.COH.III
SAGITTARIORVM.PRAEF.COH.ITERVM.II
ASTVRVM.CENSITOR.CIVIVM
ROMANORVM.COLONIAE.VICTRI
CENSIS.QVAE.EST.IN.BRITTANNIA
CAMALODVNI.CVRATOR
VIAE.NOMENTANAE.PATRONVS.EIVSDEM
MVNICIPI.FLAMEN.PERPETVS
DVVM.VIR.ALI.POTESTATE
AEDILIS.DICTATOR.IIII.
(Translated: Gnaeus Munatius Aurelius Bassus, son of Marcus of the
Nomentum Road, Patron again of the same municipality, Priest for life, Aedile with magisterial power, Dictator four times.)[5]

Status

The city was one of the few Roman settlements in Britain designated as a Colonia rather than a

Procurator's office had moved from Camulodunum to the new port of Londinium sometime around the Boudican Revolt.[5] However the Colonia did retain the Imperial cult centre and priesthood at the Temple of Claudius. The colonia was at the centre of a large territorium containing many villa sites, including an important cluster around the Colne estuary.[2]

Walls

The remains of the Balkerne Gate, which straddled the main road from London.

Following the rebuilding of the town after 60/1, new walls and a large defensive ditch were built around the colonia (the first town walls in Britain, predating other such walls in the province by at least 150 years

septaria mudstone containing a core of septaria boulders, with a 10 ft wide and 4 ft deep foundation trench, the whole structure taking up 45,000 cubic metres of stone, tile and mortar.[3][26][38] They were 2,800m long and 2.4m thick, and survive up to a height of over 6m in the 21st Century.[5] Later, in around 175–200 a large earth bank was built up against the inner face of the walls.[3] The walls had between 12 and 24 towers and six large gates.[5] The Balkerne Gate, in the centre of the Western section of the walls, was the main gate out of the town. It has a large fortified barbican that still stands as Britain's largest Roman gateway, which incorporated the earlier monumental arch built before the Iceni rebellion and was flanked by two possible temples,[38] one of which may have contained the Venus statuette found during the 1973–76 excavations.[55] Skulls showing signs of decapitation were found in the town ditch in front of the gate, interpreted as executions on public display.[38] The North wall contained two gates, the modern North Gate and Duncan's Gate. The East wall had the modern East Gate, and the Southern wall had the modern South Gate and Head Gate.[5] Drains were constructed in the wall to allow sewerage out of the colonia.[56]

Streets

Roman streets and excavated remains of Colonia Victricensis (Camulodunum)

The

Decumanus Maximus, the main east–west street, ran between Balkerne Gate and East Gate, and have their origins in the Legionary fortresses two main axial streets.[5] They were well paved, had drainage channels and were fronted with houses and shops.[57] Many included footways, a feature that is rare in other Roman British towns.[38] The rest of the colonia was gridded into around forty blocks known as insula, with paved streets and colonnaded paths between.[37][38] As well as a system of local roads leading to settlements around the colony, Camulodunum was linked to the rest of the Province by several major roads, including Stane Street, Camlet Way, Pye Road and the Via Devana
.

Public buildings

Within the town walls was located the Temple of Claudius in its large temple precinct with a monumental columned arcade.[58][59] Parts of the temple precinct wall are still visible to the NW of the present castle, jutting out from beneath the Norman bailey rampart.[3] The front of the precinct wall consisted of a large columned arcade screen extending the full width of the frontage.[5] At the centre of this arcade stood the entranceway to the temple precinct, which took the form of a tufa-faced monumental arch that at 8 m wide was about 2 m wider than the one at the Eastern entrance to the town, which had been incorporated into Balkerne Gate.[5]

To the west of the temple on the modern Maidenburgh Street was a 3,000 seat capacity

Romano-Celtic temples have been identified at Camulodunum,[7] with the largest located at the Gosbecks area to the south of the town, built within the site of a former Iron-Age enclosure.[5]

A large portico with an eastern entrance ran all the way around the outside of the site, with a solid outer wall, a row of columns down the centre of the portico and a second row of columns around the inner side.[5] In all there were about 260 columns placed 2 m apart, and reaching a height of at least 5 m.[5] The portico ran around the outside of a deep, Iron-Age enclosure ditch, which separated the portico from the central space in the middle of the site. This central space contained a large Romano-Celtic temple, which stood off-centre, leading to suggestions that something else stood at the heart of the religious complex.[5]

Next to the Gosbecks temple stood a second 5,000 seat theatre, Britain's largest at 82 m in diameter.

Jupiter.[60] Temple I at the Sheepen site was found to be enclosed by a large, buttressed precinct wall during excavations in 1935 and 2014.[61]

In 2005, the

only known Roman circus in Britain was discovered on the southern outskirts of the colonia.[62] It is about 450 metres long, with eight starting-gates, and it was built in the early 2nd century.[63] It could accommodate at least 8,000 spectators and maybe up to as many as double that.[63] The structure's gates are being opened to the public.[64]

Several temples and religious monuments in and around the colonia have evidence for the deity honoured by them:

DEO SILVANO CALLIRIO D CINTVSMVS AERARIVS VSLM
(Translated: To the god Silvanus Callirius, Decimus Cintusmus, coppersmith, willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.)[59]
DEO SILVANO HERMES VSLM
(Translated: To the god Silvanus, Hermes willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.)[59]
  • The largest of the four temples at the Sheepen site has a plaque dedicated to
    Jupiter
    :
P.ORANIVS
FACILLIS.IOVI
SIGILLUM.EX.TESTA
(Translated: Publius Oranius Facilis gave a statue to Jove under the terms of his will)[5]
  • An altar to the SW of the town dedicated to the Suleviae:
MATRIBVS SVLEVIS SIMILIS ATTI F CI CANT VSLM
(Translated: To the Sulevi mothers, Similis the son of Attius, of the Civitas Cantiacorum, willingly and deservedly fulfills his vow.)[20]
  • A Bronze plaque dedicated sometime between 222 and 235 CE by a
    Emperor Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus
    , himself a Syrian:
DEO MARTI MEDOCIO CAMPESIVM ET VICTORIE ALEXANDRI PII FELICIS AVGVSTI NOSI DONVM LOSSIO VEDA DE SVO POSVIT NEPOS VEPOGENI CALEDO
(Translated: To the god of the battlefields Mars Medocius, and to the victory of [Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus] Alexander Pius Felix Augustus, Lossius Veda the grandson of Vepogenus Caledos, placed [this] offering out of his own [funds].)[20]
  • A monument, built by a local artisan Maronius, was dedicated to the "Numinibus Augusti" (Spirits of the Emperor) and Mercury:
NVMINIB AVG ET MERCV DEO ANDESCOCI VOVCO IMILCO AESVRILINI LIBERTVS ARAM OPERE MARONIO D S D
(Translated: To the Spirits of the Emperor and the God Mercury, Andescoci Vouco Imilco Aesurilini, freedman, [dedicates] this altar, the work of Maronius, donated out of his own [funds].)[20]

Marble from many of these public structures has been found, including Purbeck Marble and giallo antico (a rare yellow marble from Tunisia),[3] as well as statutes, inscriptions and plaques.[5]

Several other public buildings have been postulated for which evidence is so far lacking, for example:

  • Depictions on pottery, glasswork, and wall plaster from the colonia of
    gladiators has been suggested as evidence that the town could have possessed an amphitheatre.[3][5]
  • A mound called "The Mount", which formerly stood in the
    Abbey grounds, was once thought to have been part of a Roman burial mound,[65] although after the discovery of the Roman Circus just to the south of where it once stood, there have been suggestions by Colchester Archaeological Trust that it could have been the remnants of an amphitheatre.[66]

Water management

The town's streets and walls feature many brick built drains, including several large examples in Castle Park and near

public baths were discovered in summer 2019.[69][38]

Houses

Roman Mosaic found at the Middleborough House, Colchester. Now in the Colchester Castle Museum.

Many houses have been found in the colonia during archaeological excavations. Stone-founded buildings largely replaced timber ones in the course of the 2nd century, while average house size tended to increase in size up to a peak at around 250.[70] They have painted plaster walls and tiled roofs, many with tessellated mosaic floors, hypocaust systems, private baths and courtyards.[37][38] Latrine pits, with examples well over a metre deep, have been discovered next to some of the houses.[37] Large houses were also found in the extramural suburbs outside of the town walls, with the Middleborough House beneath the old Cattle Market being the largest, containing many rooms, mosaics and basements.[38] The Beryfield mosaic (of 180/200) from the SE corner of the colonia is the best preserved of the more than 50 mosaics found in the town.[3]

Cemeteries

Roman sphinx sculpture, from a tomb found in Colchester in 1821. Colchester Castle Museum.

In keeping with

inhumations,[7] some in lead coffins decorated with patterns and images of scallop shells,[68] and some with wooden superstructures above and around them.[73] Examples of bustum burials (funerary pyre that is then covered with a mound) have been found, which are rare outside of Italy.[74] Elaborate grave goods accompanied some of the burials.[75] Many fragments of carved tombstones have been found in the cemeteries outside of the town,[5] with several being near complete such as the "Colchester Sphinx".[3]
Some of the inscriptions on the tombs are almost fully intact, including:

  • The tomb of a Roman
    Eques
    :
...OS... ... MACRI... ... VS EQ R VIX AN XX V FRONTINA CONIVNX ET FLOR COGITATVS ET FLOR FIDELIS FECERVNT
(Translated: [...] Macri[nus] [Flor]us, a knight of Rome, who lived for twenty-five years, Frontina his wife, with Florus Cogitatus and Florus Fidelis, have made [this memorial].)[20]
  • The tomb of a young man:
D M IN HOC TVMVLO TEGVNTVR OSSA VENERABILIS IVVENIS ... CVNCTI MVCIANVM ... ERVNT SER ... ... VN ...
(Translated: To the spirits of the departed, within this mound are being protected the bones of the honourable young man [...] Cunctius Muciana [...] they are overthrowing slavery [...])[20]

Other funerary monuments include the large tower-like ossuary containing the remains of cremated individuals and

birds of prey, which was found at the junction between the road to London and the road to Gosbecks beneath the modern Colchester Royal Grammar School.[76]

Industry and economy

Pottery production

Camulodunum was a centre for pottery production, peaking at around 200,

amphorae, called "Camulodunum Carrots" for their shape and colour, were made in the colonia, and are found in thin numbers across Britain.[71] The Samian industry, copying the East Gaullish style, was active for a time in Camulodunum from 160 to about 200,[51] with the names of several individual Samian potters identified as working in the colonia.[71] Over 400 fragments of Samian moulds for producing the decorated pottery have been uncovered in the town,[51] including 37 complete examples.[71] A well-preserved Samian kiln was excavated by archaeologist M.R. Hull near Middleborough, just outside North Gate. It was 8 ft wide, with a 5m flue under a large circular kiln chamber, and had a complex system of ceramic pipes and tubes for regulating the oxidisation of the pottery to produce its distinctive red colour.[51] Several of the potters operating in Camulodunum in the First, Second and Third centuries are identified as immigrants from the Rhine Valley and East Gaul, including the Samian potter Minuso from Trier who also operated in other British towns,[51] Miccio,[5] the mortaria potter G. Attius Marinus and several men called Sextus Valerius.[2][51] Pottery made in Camulodunum can be found across the East of England, and as far away as Eboracum.[79] One of the most famous examples of locally made pottery is the "Colchester Vase" (c. 200), which depicts combat between gladiators called Memnon and Valentinus.[3]

Other activities

Glass vessel found in Colchester depicting chariot racing

As well as pottery, ceramics produced in Camulodunum also include a large tile industry, oil lamps and figurines.

jet, marble and other goods from across the Roman Empire have been found in Colchester,[5] including a locally made amphora with an inscription suggesting that it held North African palm-tree fruit products.[71] The trade in salt from local Red Hills also appears to have continued on from the Iron Age in the Roman period, but with more sophisticated evaporation kilns.[25] Small numbers of tiles were imported from Eccles in Kent by Roman settlements in South-East Britain, including Camulodunum, for a brief time in the First Century, as was Kentish Ragstone for building.[37]

Late Roman town

The late 3rd century and 4th centuries saw a series of crises in the Empire, including breakaway of the

coin hoards around the town, including a hoard of 1,247 coins found in a grey-ware pot at Hyderabad Barracks.[66]

The location of Camulodunum within the Late Roman Empire, c. 400

As with many towns in the Empire, the colonia shrunk in size in the 4th century but continued to function as an important town.[70] Although houses tended to shrink in size, with 75% of the large townhouses being replaced by smaller buildings by c. 350,[70] in the period 275 to 325 a weak "building boom" (the "Constantinian renaissance") occurred in the town, with new houses being built and old ones reshaped.[70] Many of the town's mosaics date from this period, including the famous Lion Walk mosaic.[3] Late Roman robber trenches have been found at some sites, used for removing and salvaging tessellated floors and tiles for reuse in later houses.[37][38] The pottery industry in the town had declined significantly by 300,[70] but the 4th century saw an increase in the bone-working industry for making furniture and jewellery,[37] and evidence of blown glass making has also been found.[37] Large areas of the Southern part of the town were given over to agriculture.[37]

Despite scaling down of private buildings an increase in size and grandeur of public buildings occurred in the period 275–400.[70] The Temple of Claudius and its associated temenos buildings were reconstructed in the early-4th century, along with the possible forum-basilica building to the south of it.[82] The Temple appears to have had a large apsidal hall built across the front of the podium steps, with numismatic dating evidence taking the date of the building up to at least 395.[82] A large hall at the Culver Street site, dated 275–325 to c. 400, may have been a large centralised storage barn for taxes paid in kind with grain.[37][70]

Although the Gosbecks Theatre had been demolished by the 3rd century, the theatre at Maidenburgh Street may still have been in use throughout the 4th century.[83] The sunken chambers of the water reservoir system found in Castle Park appear to have become blocked with debris and dumped rubbish in the 4th century and was disused.[84][85] The Roman chariot circus was also demolished during the late 4th century.[86] Increases in the number of

clipped coins from the 4th century have been interpreted as a breakdown in the Roman monetary economy,[5] with most new Bronze coins ceasing to be introduced in the town c. 395 and silver coins in 402 (though these coins may have remained in circulation long after being minted).[70] For example, the coin sequence at the Butt Road church goes up to around 425, 14 years after Roman rule ended in the province.[70]

Saxon migrations of the mid to late 5th century.[65]

Christianity in the late Roman town

During this period the

Council of Arles (314), one from London, one from York and a third from a place whose first word is Colonia but whose second word is too corrupted to make out with any certainty, but has been interpreted as something like Camulodensium (although Lincoln and Gloucester are other possible candidates).[68][87]

Sub-Roman period

The formal collapse of Roman administration in the province occurred in the years 409–411. Activity in the 5th century continued in Camulodunum at a much reduced level,[70] with evidence of at the Butt Road site showing it briefly carrying on into the early 5th century.[68]

Several burials within the towns walls have been dated to the late 5th century. These include two burials discovered at East Hill House in 1983, which have been surgically decapitated (in a fashion found in both

Constantine III (reigned 407–411) from Artillery Folly, that are heavily clipped; this clipping must have occurred in the years after they were minted and so would have happened in the 400s (decade).[5][7] Scattered structures have also been excavated by archaeologists, such as a mid-5th century dwelling at Lion Walk,[38] as well as 5th century loam weights and cruciform-brooches found across the town.[5] At the Culver Street site a thin layer of early Saxon pottery was discovered along with two dwellings.[37] Other circumstantial evidence of activity includes large post-Roman rubbish dumps, which suggest nearby occupation by Romano-Britons.[70] Excavations at Guildford Road Estate have uncovered a Germanic-style brooch, dated to around the 420s, associated with a group of beads from a necklace, also dated to sometime between 400 and 440.[65] The presence of Late Roman and Germanic military and domestic finds within the Late Roman and Pre-Saxon early-Fifth Century town has been interpreted by archaeologist Philip Crummy as either the result of Saxon foederati and their families living within Camulodunum, and/or cultural influences from the continent on the local population.[65]

Roman legacy in Saxon and early medieval Colchester

Saxon doorway of Holy Trinity Church. Note the Roman tiles reused in its construction

Later dwellings at Culver Street and artifacts from the 7th and 8th centuries are seen as evidence that the shell of the Roman town was still in use into the

Holy Trinity church and many of the Norman "stone houses" were built from the vast amounts of Roman debris left over in the town.[5][92] Over 25,000 cubic metres of reused Roman tile and brick was used for the Castle alone.[5] The quarrying of Roman rubble for building material reached a peak in the 12th and 13th Centuries.[65]

Several structures from the Saxon and Medieval period incorporated Roman structural remains within their walls and outlines.

town's coat of arms depict the True Cross and crowns of the Three Kings that she is supposed to have found in Jerusalem.[7] Other examples of Roman remains used in later buildings include several medieval cellars on the High Street,[65] St Nicholas's Church (demolished in the 1950s), which was built on a Roman building and originally incorporated the remains of standing Roman walls,[65] and St Helen's Chapel, which was built into the corner of the Roman theatre in the town.[5][65] A study in the late 1970s by Colchester Archaeological Trust discovered that many of the Medieval property boundaries within Colchester's town centre followed the lines of Roman street frontages and the walls of Roman buildings.[65] This was especially prominent along the High Street, where the medieval street "frontage of the High Street between St Runwald's Church and Maidenburgh Street has fossilized the imprint of the Roman town underneath...".[65] St Runwald's Church (demolished in the 19th century) formerly stood in the centre of the High Street market just east of the current Town Hall, and was built into the corner of a junction between two Roman streets.[65] The study concluded that Roman building ruins and old street remains were in some cases used as a template for later property divisions.[65]

The name of the town and the River Colne are also a legacy of the Romans. "Colchester" (first appearing in written form in the 10th Century as Colencaester and Colneceastre) is a Saxon name derived from the Latin words Colonia and Castra,[5] with the River Colne also taking its name from Colonia.[5]

See also

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Bibliography

  • Tacitus (1876). The Annales. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (translators).

External links