Ratae Corieltauvorum was the civitas capital of the Corieltauvi, occupying the site of modern Leicester on the east bank of the River Soar. Originating as a late Iron Age settlement and possibly an early Roman military post in the AD 40s–60s, it developed into a substantial planned town from the early 2nd century, with a formal street grid, forum-basilica (completed c. AD 130), public baths, and a circuit of defences added in the later 2nd century and rebuilt in stone in the 3rd. It remained an important regional centre into the later 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As the administrative capital of the Corieltauvi tribe, Ratae was the principal civilian, judicial, and market centre for the East Midlands, linked into the provincial road network via the Fosse Way and Via Devana. It is one of around two dozen civitas capitals in Britain and the only major Roman town in its region.
Excavations since the 19th century have revealed the macellum, forum-basilica complex, and the Jewry Wall — the surviving west wall of the public baths and one of the tallest standing pieces of Roman masonry in Britain — together with town houses featuring fine mosaics (the Blackfriars and Peacock pavements) and painted wall plaster. Substantial work by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1930s and recent ULAS excavations (notably at Vine Street and Highcross) have added detailed evidence for domestic qu
Ratae Corieltauvorum was the civitas capital of the Corieltauvi, occupying the site of modern Leicester on the east bank of the River Soar. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Ratae is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Jewry Wall (0.4 km), Norfolk Street (1.1 km), Leicester abbey and 17th century mansion and ornamental gardens (1.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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