Editing Colchester (section)

===Roman period===
{{Main|Camulodunum}}
[[File:The Roman Town Wall, Head Street to the Balkerne Gate 3.JPG|thumb|Part of the Roman walls in Colchester]]

Soon after the [[Roman conquest of Britain]] in AD 43, a Roman legionary fortress was established,<ref>J. Nelson, ed., ''The Victoria History of the County of Essex'', IX (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1994), pp. 7–10</ref> the first in Britain.<ref name="Crummy, Philip 1997"/> Later, when the Roman frontier moved outwards and the twentieth legion had moved to the west (c. AD 49), Camulodunum became a [[Colonia (Roman)|colonia]] named in a second-century inscription as ''Colonia Victricensis''. This contained a large and elaborate [[Temple of Claudius, Colchester|Temple to the Divine Claudius]],<ref>Nelson, ed. ''V.C.H. Essex'', IX, p. 10</ref> the largest [[Roman Temple|classical-style temple]] in Britain, as well as at least seven other Romano-British temples.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roman-britain.co.uk/places/colchester_temples/|title=Temple of Claudius at Camulodunon (Colchester)|website=Roman-britain.co.uk|access-date=20 July 2014}}</ref> Colchester is home to two of the five [[Roman theatre (structure)|Roman theatres]] found in Britain; the example at Gosbecks (site of the [[Trinovantes|Iron Age]] royal farmstead) is the largest in [[Great Britain|Britain]], able to seat 5,000.<ref name="Crummy, Philip 1997"/>

Camulodunum served as a provincial Roman capital of Britain, but was attacked and destroyed during [[Boudica]]'s rebellion in AD 61.<ref>Salway, ''Roman Britain'', pp. 89–90, 117–18</ref> Sometime after the destruction, London became the capital of the province of [[Britannia]].<ref>Salway, ''Roman Britain'', p. 530</ref> Colchester's city walls c. 3,000&nbsp;yd. long were built c.65–80 A.D. when the Roman town was rebuilt after the Boudicca rebellion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21995|title=Walls and Gates British History|publisher=British-history.ac.uk|access-date=17 January 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102061835/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21995|archive-date=2 November 2012}}</ref> In 2004, Colchester Archaeological Trust discovered the remains of a Roman Circus (chariot race track) underneath the Garrison in Colchester, a unique find in Britain.<ref>D. Mattingly, ''An Imperial Possession; Britain in the Roman Empire'' (Penguin Books: London, 2007), pp. 269–70</ref> The city reached its peak in the second and third centuries AD.<ref name="Crummy, Philip 1997"/><ref name="Faulkner, 1994">Faulkner, Neil. (1994) Late Roman Colchester, In Oxford Journal of Archaeology 13(1)</ref> It may have reached a population of 30,000 in that period.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Discovering Roman Britain|author1=McCloy, A.|author2=Midgley, A.|date=2008|publisher=New Holland|isbn=9781847731289|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mswynZFMtqgC|page=60}}</ref>

In 2014 a hoard of jewellery, known as The Fenwick Hoard, named for the shop it was found beneath,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Boyle|first1=Danny|title='Fenwick Treasure': Hoard of Roman jewellery buried to save it from Boudicca goes on display in Colchester|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/23/fenwick-treasure-hoard-of-roman-jewellery-buried-to-save-it-from/|access-date=1 April 2020|work=The Telegraph|date=23 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401114237/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/23/fenwick-treasure-hoard-of-roman-jewellery-buried-to-save-it-from/|archive-date=1 April 2020}}</ref> was discovered in the town centre.<ref name="The Colchester Archaeologist 1">{{cite news|url=http://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=14844|title=The Fenwick Treasure at Williams & Griffin!|work=The Colchester Archaeologist|date=23 March 2016|access-date=23 March 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320171848/http://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=14844|archive-date=20 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="The Colchester Archaeologist 2">{{cite news|url=http://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=15398|title='the Fenwick treasure' reveals more gems...|work=The Colchester Archaeologist|access-date=23 March 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320091301/http://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=15398|archive-date=20 March 2016}}</ref> The director of Colchester Archaeological Trust, Philip Crummy, described the hoard as being of "national importance and one of the finest ever uncovered in Britain".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/12202566/Fenwick-Treasure-Hoard-of-Roman-jewellery-buried-to-save-it-from-Boudicca-goes-on-display-in-Colchester.html|title='Fenwick Treasure': Hoard of Roman jewellery buried to save it from Boudicca goes on display in Colchester|author=Danny Boyle|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=23 March 2016|access-date=23 March 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323202610/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/12202566/Fenwick-Treasure-Hoard-of-Roman-jewellery-buried-to-save-it-from-Boudicca-goes-on-display-in-Colchester.html|archive-date=23 March 2016}}</ref>