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Roman mosaic in Colchester
© Colchester Museum
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The first shopkeepers: Commercial life in Roman Colchester |
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Colchester was a veteran colony, established on conquered land to house those Roman citizen soldiers who had fulfilled their 25 years of service. Each veteran was eligible to a retirement fund of 3000 denarii (approximately 13 years’ pay), or its equivalent in land, which usually worked out at around 200 iugera (c.125 acres or 50 hectares). They were expected to marry into the local population and help integrate it into Roman ways, but the behaviour of this particular group of veterans appears to have had the opposite effect, at least in the short term.
The Roman historian Tacitus gives a harrowing account of the brutal way the veterans went about claiming their entitlement – a factor which would contribute to the bad feeling that led ultimately to the Boudiccan revolt.
Mini Pompeii
At the heart of this new colony stood the forum, converted out of the headquarters building of the old fortress. This was both its commercial and administrative centre, with a large public meeting hall, known as a basilica, fronted by a colonnaded square. Market stalls would have been set up in this square, and while there is no clear evidence of the practice in Colchester, trading booths known as canabae were usually arranged between the pillars of the colonnade.
Leading away from the forum, Colchester seems to have had a street of shops along the via Praetoria, the central thoroughfare that led from the old east gate of the fortress to the headquarters building along what is now the High Street.
Words: Dr Mark Ibeji
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