Camulodunum

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Camulodunum

Camulodunum is the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
name for the ancient settlement which is today's Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is a town, and the largest settlement within the Colchester , in Essex, England.It has a population of List of English cities by population....
, a town in Essex

Essex

Essex is a counties of England in the East of England England. The county town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, Essex, close to the Hertfordshire border, which reaches ....
, England

England

Oldest town in Britain

The Oldest town in Britain is a title claimed by a number of settlements in Great Britain....
in England as recorded by the Romans, existing as a Celt

Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic settlement before the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
conquest, when it became the first Roman town, and eventually a settlement of discharged Roman soldiers, known as Colonia Claudia Victricensis. There is archaeological evidence of settlement 3,000 years ago.

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Encyclopedia

Camulodunum is the Roman

Ancient Rome

Colchester

Colchester is a town, and the largest settlement within the Colchester , in Essex, England.It has a population of List of English cities by population....
, a town in Essex

Essex

England

Oldest town in Britain

The Oldest town in Britain is a title claimed by a number of settlements in Great Britain....
in England as recorded by the Romans, existing as a Celt

Celt

Ancient Rome

Mars (mythology)

Mars was the Roman mythology warrior God , the son of Juno and Jupiter , husband of Bellona , and the lover of Venus . He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions....
). This name was modified to the Roman spelling of "Camulodunum".

Prehistoric era

Camulodunon was the capital of the Trinovantes

Trinovantes

The Trinovantes or Trinobantes were one of the Celtic tribes that lived in pre-Roman Britain. Their territory was on the north side of the Thames estuary in current Essex, England and Suffolk, and included lands now located in Greater London....
tribe, who built an impressive system of earthwork defences to the west and south of the town. It was probably established as their capital by Addedomarus

Addedomarus

Addedomarus was a king of south-eastern Prehistoric Britain in the late 1st century BC. His name is known only from his inscribed coins, the distribution of which seem to indicate that he was the ruler of the Trinovantes....
, a king known from his inscribed coins dating to around 25 - 10 BC (at the time of Caesar's invasions of Britain

Caesar's invasions of Britain

During his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Great Britain twice, in 55 and 54 BC. The first invasion, made late in summer, was either intended as a full invasion or a reconnaissance-in-force expedition....
in 55 and 54 BC, the tribe were probably based at Braughing

Braughing

Braughing is a village and civil parish, between the rivers River Quin and River Rib, in the non-metropolitan district of East Hertfordshire, part of the England county of Hertfordshire, England....
). For a brief period around 10 BC Tasciovanus

Tasciovanus

File:Tasciovanus.jpgTasciovanus was a historical king of the Catuvellauni tribe before the Roman conquest of Britain....
, a king of the Catuvellauni

Catuvellauni

The Catuvellauni were a Celtic/Belgae tribe or state of south-eastern Prehistoric Britain before the Roman conquest of Britain.The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their kings before the conquest can be traced through numismatic evidence and scattered references in classical histories....
already issuing coins from Verlamion

Verlamion

Verlamion, or Verlamio , was the tribal capital of the Catuvellauni tribe in Iron Age Britain from approximately 20 BC until shortly after the Roman Empire invasion of 43 AD....
, also issued coins from Camulodunon, suggesting that the Trinovantes' capital had been conquered by the Catuvellauni, but he was soon forced to withdraw, perhaps as a result of Roman pressure – his later coins are no longer marked with the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
REX (for "king"), but with the Brythonic RICON – and Addedomarus was restored. His son Dubnovellaunus

Dubnovellaunus

Dubnovellaunus or Dumnovellaunus was the name of at least one, and possibly several kings of south-eastern Prehistoric Britain in the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, known from coin legends and from a mention in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti....
succeeded him, but was soon supplanted by Tasciovanus' son Cunobelinus

Cunobelinus

Cunobelinus was a historical king in pre-Roman Ancient Britain, known from passing mentions by classical historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and from his many inscribed coins....
. Cunobelinus then succeeded his father at Verlamion, beginning the dominance of the Catuvellauni over the south-east. 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 port of Caulodunon, during his reign. He was probably one of the British kings that Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
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.

Early Roman Camulodunum

Cunobelinus had died prior to the Roman invasion under Aulus Plautius

Aulus Plautius

Aulus Plautius was a Roman empire politician and general of the mid-1st century. He led the Roman conquest of Britain in 43, and became the first List of Roman governors of Britain of the new province, serving from 43 to 47....
in 43, and the British defence was led by his sons Caratacus

Caratacus

Caratacus was a historical British Iron Age chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who led the British resistance to the Roman conquest. The legendary Welsh mythology character Caradoc and the legendary British king Arvirargus may be based upon Caratacus....
and Togodumnus

Togodumnus

Togodumnus was a historical king of the British Catuvellauni tribe at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. He can probably be identified with the legendary British king Guiderius....
. Plautius secured a crossing point of the River Thames, halted, and sent word for the emperor Claudius

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
to lead the march to Camulodunon. Claudius arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, but as Suetonius

Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies on the battles of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled On the Life of the Caesars....
and Claudius' triumphal arch state, the British kings surrendered without further bloodshed.

A Roman legionary fortress or castrum, the first permanent legionary fortress to be built in Britain, was established at Camulodunum in 43. A veteran colony was established in an effort to subdue the Silures

Silures

The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe of ancient Great Britain, occupying approximately the counties of Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorganshire in south Wales....
and as part of an attempt at Romanisation

Romanization (cultural)

Romanization was a gradual process of cultural assimilation, in which the conquered "barbarians" gradually adopted and largely replaced their own native culture with the culture of their conquerors - the Romans....
. Later it became a colonia
Colonia (Roman)

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman Empire outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city....
– a settlement of discharged Roman soldiers – and the principal city of Roman Britain. A Roman monumental temple

Temple of Claudius, Colchester

The Temple of Claudius or Temple of the Deified Claudius built in Camulodunum around 44.Colchester Castle is built on the remains of its podium or foundations, which the castle's Normans builders assumed was solid ground, and the castle overall was built out of spolia from this and the ruins of other Roman buildings in the town....
was built there c. 44 and was dedicated to the emperor Claudius.

According to Tacitus, in 60/61 when the Iceni

Iceni

The Iceni or Eceni were a Brythonic tribe who inhabited an area of Roman Britain corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and 1st century AD....
and Trinovantes

Trinovantes

Boudica

Boudica was a queen of the Iceni tribe of what is now known as East Anglia in England, who led an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....
revolted against Roman rule, the city was undefended by fortifications, and was only garrisoned by 200 members of the procurator's guard. The rebels destroyed the city. The settlement was a target for the rebels because the veterans who inhabited the city "drove people out of their houses, ejected them from their farms, called them captives and slaves". The temple, where the citizens had taken refuge, was destroyed after a two day siege. After the defeat of the uprising, the administrative centre of the Roman province moved to the newly established commercial settlement of Londinium

Londinium

This article covers the history of London during the Roman Britain from around 47 AD when the Roman city of Londinium was founded, to its abandonment during the 5th century....
(London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
).

Roman town

Colchester was the only place in the province of Britannia where samian ware

Samian ware

Samian ware is a kind of bright glossy red Ancient Roman pottery, also known as terra sigillata although definitions vary somewhat, and on the continental mainland terra sigillata is a generic term for all red glossed Roman pottery, including Arretine ware, African Red Slip and other types....
was produced (for a short time). Roman brick making and wine growing also took place in the area. Bricks have been made in Colchester (or in the surrounding area) for around 2,000 years.

Many Roman mosaics and artifacts have been found in subsequent archaeological digs in the town and some can be seen at the Colchester Castle

Colchester Castle

Colchester Castle in Colchester, Essex , is an example of a largely complete Norman architecture castle, the whit tower of the tower of london was based upon this....
museum. The Roman walls still survive (they are the most complete in the country) and they contain the largest surviving Roman gateway in Britain. Many holes have been cut in the walls over the years and the history of the whole town can be seen in its surviving structure. Medieval buttresses, shops and steps are still present in Colchester, reusing spolia

Spolia

Spolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments. The practice was common in late antiquity ; in Byzantium ; in the medieval West ; and in the medieval Islamic world ....
.

Camulodunum

Prehistoric era

Early Roman Camulodunum

Roman town

Bibliography