It’s quite a claim but Colchester has been inhabited for a very long time indeed. The Iron Age, which is well outside my usual time frame, began in about 700 BC. About 2000 years ago the inhabitants of modern day Colchester created a series of defensive dykes which stretch for between 12 and 15 miles depending upon which source you read. In either event it was a huge undertaking. It seems likely that the settlement was a high status agricultural estate. An additional benefit of the earthworks may have been to keep herds from straying. As well as the settlement at modern day Gosbecks there was a more industrial settlement at Sheepen.

In 55/54 BC Julius Caesar crossed the Channel. He wrote that the Trinovantes who lived in Essex and the southern parts of Suffolk were the strongest tribe in the southeast. The neighbouring tribe were the Catuvellauni (based in modern Hertfordshire). The visit established links with Rome and trading relations developed. British kings began to issue their own currency. By the time he returned in 54 BC the Trinovantes had been overtaken by the Catuvellauni. King Tasciovanus minted coins at St Albans and later at Colchester.

In 15 BC, or thereabouts, one of the high status individuals who lived in Colchester died and was buried in a tumulus with his possessions. The Lexden Tumulus contains many grave goods demonstrating the man’s status. Among them, 17 amphoras for storing wine. There is also a silver medal bearing the head of the Emperor Augustus. It is possible that it is the resting place of King Addeomaros of Camulodunum as Colchester was then known. Camulodunum means ‘fortress of the war god Camulos’.

In about AD 5 Cunobelin, or Cymbeline as Shakespeare called him, began to issue coins – and kept them coming for about the next thirty years. Colchester was his power base.

AD 40 Cunobelin dies.

AD 43 Emperor Claudius invades. The Roman army, under the command of Julius Plautius, heads for Colchester. Cunobelin’s son, Togodumnus is killed and his second son, Caratucus, rather than accept defeat continued fighting a guerrilla war for several years afterwards . He was eventually betrayed and sent to Rome with his family and lots of loot. He made a dramatic speech to the emperor and was pardoned. He and his family remained in exile in Rome. By then Claudius had accepted the submission of several British kings who become clients of the empire, including the Iceni tribe of present day Norfolk which meant that they retained some independence but were required to pay taxes. It left the Romans with a buffer zone between peaceable tribes and those who were actively hostile. The invasion and early Roman years of Colchester were described by Tacitus in his Annals and later by Dio Cassius.

AD 44 – Colchester became a legionary fortress. The XX legion, who originated from modern Germany, build their fort away from the Iron Age settlement on top of a hill near the River Colne. They continued to utilise the industrial site at Sheepen. In addition, the Romans started their own cemetery on the road leading south away from the garrison. There are two gravestones associated with the garrison in Colchester Castle. One is in memory of Marcus Favonius Facilis, a centurion with Legio XX. The other is dedicated to Longinus Sdapeze, an officer of the 1st squadron of the Thracian cavalry unit. His gravestone depicts him trembling a vanquished Briton beneath his horse (very similar to the one at Hexham).

AD 49 – As the Romans secured the southeast the need for an army in that part of Britain was reduced . It was decreed that Camulodunum should become a colonia. A colonia was a colony for retired army veterans who were entitled to land to support themselves and their family after 25 years service. If they were not already Roman citizens, they were also granted that status. In part, as Tacitus explains, they were there as a military reserve but the real reason for the establishment of colonia in vanquished regions was to Romanise the locals and provide a model of good Roman behaviour. And since the veterans were from the Legio XX it made sense to provide them with land in the newly established province rather than permitting the battle hardened soldiers to return to their own country where they might have turned their skills against the empire or to settle them in Italy. Colchester was the first colonia in Britain, and would remain so for 40 years, but it was joined by Lincoln, Gloucester and York. The fort was repurposed. Some of the barracks were reused, others were demolished and new buildings established.

The new Roman town was named Colonia Victricensis which differentiated it from Iron Age Camulodunum which remained at modern Gosbecks. The two were connected by a road. The Britons who lived there were clients of the Romans and watched over by a Roman fort. Because the inhabitants were part of the British elite they were expected to become more Romanised. This can be seen by the existence of a Romano-Celtic temple there. Little is known about the deity it was built to worship but it is likely to have been dedicated to Camulos-Mars. A theatre was added later. Even so, the burial site at Stanway, close to Gosbecks, reveals its inhabitants continued to be interred according to their own rituals. At Gosbecks it seems that the Romans were careful not to alienate the Britons and left them with their land. Elsewhere it was a different story.

The Roman temple dedicated to Claudius was built at about the same time. It was to the east of the site of the garrison and the defeated Britons were required to help fund its construction – it became symbolic of the power of Rome. Colchester, or Camulodunum, was now the capital of Roman Britain. There was even a monumental gateway built on the orders of Claudius to celebrate his victory over the British. This later became Colchester’s Balkerne Gateway but there weren’t any substantial defences around the colonia.

Tacitus recorded that the veterans of the colonia did not behave well to towards the Trinovantes. Many people were driven from their land and enslaved. It would not end well for the inhabitants of the colonia. More on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile during the course of my search for various texts I was tickled to come across the Colchester edition of Monopoly – I quite fancy owning the Balkerne Gate or the Roman circus, even if its only in a game! Click on the image if you’re tempted- to open the link in a new tab.