The Temple of Claudius (Lat. Templum Claudii) or Temple of the Deified Claudius (Lat. Templum Divi Claudii) was a large octastyle temple built in Camulodunum, the modern Colchester in Essex. The main building was constructed between 49 and 60 AD, although additions were built throughout the Roman-era. Today, it forms the base of the Norman Colchester Castle. It is one of at least eight Roman-era pagan temples in Colchester, and was the largest temple of its kind in Roman Britain; its current remains potentially represent the earliest existing Roman stonework in the country.
After the Roman conquest of Britain led in person by the Emperor Claudius in 43 AD, a legionary fortress was established at Camulodunon, the Iron Age capital of the Trinovantes and Catuvellauni tribes. This fortress was later converted into a town for retired soldiers in 49 AD, and was renamed Camulodunum, a Latin rendition of the Celtic name of the site. The town was the capital of the new province of Britannia, and had several public buildings befitting its status. These included a theatre, a curia (council chamber), forum and a large classical-style temple. The temple's construction began during Claudius' reign, and it was dedicated to him after his death in 54 AD, with the official name of the town becoming Colonia Claudia Victricensis ('the City of Claudius' Victory') and the temple becoming the Templum Divi Claudii ('the Temple of the Deified Claudius'). The temple was the centre for the imperial cult in the province, as is mentioned in Seneca's 1st-century book the Apocolocyntosis, which mocks both the deceased Claudius and the Britons for their supposed piety towards him.
The podium of the temple was constructed by pouring a mix of mortar and stone into trenches cut into the ground. This base still survives today, and from the position of its load-bearing walls can be made out the superstructures layout. This appears to conform to the plans of Vitruvius in his De Architectura for a classical octastyle temple.
The podium is rectangular, aligned north–south. The main chamber of the temple, the cella, was positioned at the back of the podium, and would have been a 285-square-metre (3,070 sq ft) rectangular room (its length based on the position of the podium's vaults, would have been one and a quarter its width, in keeping with Vitruvian design) and was also aligned north–south, with a southern entrance. It would have had no windows and, based on Vitruvian geometry and analogies from elsewhere combined with the knowledge from the existing dimensions of the podium, would have been about 20 metres (66 ft) high. The cella's back wall was against the back of the podium. Ten columns would have run along the east and west exterior sides of the temple, with none around the back of the chamber (peripteral style). Eight columns would have run across the front of the cella (hence "octastyle"). The pronaos in front of the cella would have had six columns along its sides. The temple was eustyle, meaning that the space between each column was two and a quarter times the diameter of the column, except for the two central columns at the front of the temple portico, which were three diameters apart. The temple is constructed from septaria obtained from the Essex coast, possibly from near Walton-on-the-Naze, and large flint nodules, whilst the roof would have been of imbrex and tegula. The columns are made from a core of curved brick, with the exterior and capitals rendered in plaster. Polished marble, including Purbeck marble and rare giallo antico from Tunisia, and stone (including tufa from the Hampshire coast) would have faced the temple, large fragments of which have been found nearby. Pieces of inscriptions on marble and large bronzed letters have been found around the site. An altar stood in front of the podium of the temple. The temple stood in the centre of a large precinct (temenos), parts of the wall of which are still visible beneath the later Norman castle bailey earthen bank. In 2014 columns from the monumental façade of the precinct were discovered behind the High Street, with plans to make them visible to the public. The entranceway to the precinct took the form of a tufa-faced 8-metre (26 ft) wide monumental arch flanked by a columned arcade screen. Further excavations showed that the precinct was adorned with arcades and about 120 metres (390 ft) long.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The Temple of Claudius (Lat. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a temple site from the Roman period in Britain.
Temple of Claudius is classified as a Roman temple — a religious 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 Col. Camulodunum (0.1 km), Ad Ansam (0.2 km), SE corner of Roman town in Easthill House Gardens (0.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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