Clive Aslet considers the town that was one of Roman Britain’s greatest cities — and even, for a while, its capital: Colchester.
The Emperor Claudius ordered the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, arriving in person once the fighting was all over to lead his army into what would be the capital of his new province, Camulodunum, present-day Colchester, which became Britain’s first formally laid-out town and a useful port for trade.
Claudius would have found a…
