Colonia Camulodunum (Colchester)

This is possibly the oldest Roman town in Britain, and was reportedly the first capital before London.  It was one of the three largest and most important towns on the island, with its official name being Colonia Claudia Victricensis.  The probable Civitate for the Trinovantes, the city was sacked in the Boudabrican revolt and the inhabitants massacred.

Classical References to Camulodunum (Colchester)

Camulodunon – The Fortress of The Powerful War God

… Farther eastward, and near the Tamesa Aestuarium¹ are the Trinovantes² and the town Camulodunum 21*00 55°00 …

1. The Thames Estuary.
2. The Trinovantes tribe were the original inhabitants of Colchester, but they were overrun by their powerful neighbours the Catuvellauni c.9AD, who were in turn defeated by the Roman army of Claudius in 43.

Colchester is situated mostly on the southern bank of the River Colne in Essex, close to the border with Suffolk. The town is mentioned in two of the British routes in the Antonine Itinerary. It first appears near the start of Iter V, “The Route from London to Carlisle on the Wall [of Hadrian]”, where it is named simply Colonia, and positioned 24 miles from Caesaromagus (Chelmsford, Essex) and 35 miles from Villa Faustini (Scole, Norfolk). The Roman colony also appears in the Ninth Itinerary as Camoloduno, this time 6 miles from Ad Ansam (somewhere near Stratford St. Mary in Suffolk) and 9 miles from Canonium (Kelvedon, Essex). Iter IX is entitled “The Route from Venta Icinorum to Londinum“, and details part of the same route as Iter V, filling in the Roman road-stations between the civitas capital of the Iceni tribe at Caistor St. Edmund in Norfolk, and the provincial capital at London.

Colchester is also mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmology (R&C#99), where it is named Manulodulo. Colonia and appears between the entries for Caesaromagus (Chelmsford, Essex) and Durolitum (Romford, Greater London). Like most of this seventh century document the entry for Colchester is somewhat garbled, but may be easily identified, as there were only ever four Roman colonies in Britain, and the sole example in the entire south-eastern region was at Camulodunum.

The Roman name for Colchester then, was Camulodunum, which is a straight Romanization of the original place-name Camulodunon, which may mean ‘The fort of Camulos‘. Camulos was the iron-age War God, the meaning of whose name is supposed to be ‘powerful’, and was associated by the Romans with their own God of War, Mars.

The Gods of Roman Colchester

A monumental Roman temple was built at Camulodunum c.44AD, which grandiose structure was dedicated to the emperor Claudius himself, following the urges of his sycophantic court. The site chosen for it lay just outside the fortress to the east, in the middle of the large civilian settlement or canabae, which had assembled in the short year following the invasion, the intention was probably to forcefully remind the natives that they were now vassals of Rome. The ‘Temple of the Divine Claudius’ at Colchester was the first monumental Roman temple in Britain.

Aside from the iron-age war-god Camulos, to whom the whole settlement was dedicated in name, and the temple of the imperial cult mentioned above, there are evidences of other classical gods being worshipped in Romano-British Colchester. The only dateable inscription mentioned in the R.I.B. is a bronze ansate plate dedicated to the Roman war-god Mars, which was inscribed in the early-third century (RIB 191 supra). Also recorded is a statue or altar base dedicated to the the Sulevae (RIB 192, hic), a dedication in stone to the Spirit of the Emperor and the god Mercury (RIB 193 etiam) and two bronze plates dedicated to the classical god Silvanus (RIB 194 et 195, uterque infra).

Two Bronze Plates Dedicated to Silvanus

These texts were discovered within Colchester Temple 6 and are now displayed on the RBO page for Colchester Temples.

The Capital City of Cunobelin

The exact whereabouts of the British royal enclosure at Camulodumnum has been established recently, near Gosbeck’s Farm in Cheshunt Field (TL966225). The site lies close to a gap in the western defences of the British oppidum, and has long been known as an area of some historic importance.

A large Romano-British temple was built close to the Gosbeck’s Farm enclosure to the north-east (TL967226). It is possible that the temple was built on the site of a shrine to some native iron-age deity, perhaps Camulos himself, after whom the ancient British capital was named.

The Roman Military

The legionary fortress at Colchester (TL995252) was established in 43AD as the base of Legio XX Valeria during the governorship of Aulus Plautius. This was the first permanent legionary fortress to be built in Britain, and was sited near the centre of the British oppidum, about 2¼ miles (2.7km) north-east of the British royal enclosure. There are two stones from Colchester which name this legion, the tombstone of a centurion from the unit (RIB 200 infra) and the tombstone of an experienced centurion who may have been serving in the Second Legion Adiutrix when he was either discharged, or died in service (RIB 203 etiam infra).

The Roman Colony Destroyed by Fire

A colonia of army veterans was established in 49AD when the Twentieth Legion was withdrawn to a new legionary fortress at Glevum (Gloucester, the Kingsholm site). This time, Camulodunum had the honour of becoming the first Roman colony in Britain. Camulodunum was already a thriving town when it was destroyed by fire during the uprising of Boudicca in the winter of 60/61AD, this time earning it the dubious distinction of the first town razed to the ground by rebellious British tribesmen.

Following the Boudican revolt the defensive walls of the colony were rebuilt, this time of concrete faced by cut stones with brick bonding courses, 8 feet thick backed by a 20 foot wide earth bank. These defences were augmented by large rectangular corner and interval towers and pierced by four monumental gateways, one of which, the so-called Balkerne (West) Gate, became in 1913 the first Roman structure in Britain to be dated by modern excavation methods. The footings of the Balkerne Gate were found to have been built no later than c.85AD, and it is possible that this structure began life as a first century monumental archway. The town walls were completed by the early second century and enclosed an area of one hundred acres, the interior of the colonia being divided into city-blocks measuring on average about 330 feet square.

Excavations in 1970 – Sheepen Farm Belgic Bronze-Works

A small section of the Belgic oppidum south-east of Sheepen Farm (TL987257) was excavated in 1947 and revealed four “Belgic huts” and the timber sheds, gravel yards, rubbish pits and hearths of a large native bronze-working industrial area. The pits were found to contain metalworking scrap and pottery sherds which was predominantly British in character. There is some evidence that the site was occupied by the Roman military during or shortly after 43AD, when the native bronze-working tools were employed to make Roman military decorations such as phalerae, and it seems likely that gangs of native tribesmen were forced to do all the heavy labour. The area was razed to the ground during the revolt of Boudicca in the Winter of 60/61, and completely abandoned after c.75. The eastern part of the site was later used as a small 4th-century inhumation cemetery.

A section through the defences of the colonia just south of the Balkerne Gate (at TL993252) found that the rampart wall had been originally free-standing, with a gravel road running just to the rear, and that the monumental gateway had been added at a later period.

References for Colonia Clavdia Victricensis Camvlodvnensivmcamvlodvnvm

• The Towns of Roman Britain by John Wacher (2nd Ed., BCA, London, 1995) pp.112-132 & fig.46;
• Roman Britain – A Sourcebook by S. Ireland (Routlege, New York, 1986);
• The Excavation of the Roman Theatre at Gosbecks by Rosalind Dunnett in Britannia ii (1971) pp.27-47;
• Britannia ii (1971) p.272; The Romans in Britain – An Anthology of Inscriptions by A.R. Burn (Blackwell, Oxford, 1969);
• The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965).
• Air Reconnaissance of Southern Britain by J.K. St. Joseph in J.R.S. xliii (1953) pp.81-97;

Map References for Colonia Clavdia Victricensis Camvlodvnensivmcamvlodvnvm

NGRef: TL 995 252 OSMap: LR168

Roman Roads near Colonia Clavdia Victricensis Camvlodvnensivmcamvlodvnvm

Stane Street: W (15) to Braintree (Essex) Peddlars Way?: NNW (30) to Ixworth Probable road: NW (16) to Long Melford (Suffolk) Iter IX: NNE (5) to Ad Ansam (Stratford St. Mary, Suffolk) Via Devana: WNW (21) to Wixoe (Suffolk) Probable road: WNW (33) to Great Chesterford Iter IX: WSW (10) to Canonivm (Kelvedon, Essex) SE (5) to Fingringhoe (Essex) Peddlars Way?: NNW (30) to Sitomagvs