the Roman inscriptions of Colchester online

The Roman inscriptions of Britain are published in a group of famous volumes, The Roman inscriptions of Britain (RIB), volumes I, II and III.
RIB I is now also published online. Today (1st December), the Trust retweeted a web-link which was Tweeted today by Roman Binchester, to the inscriptions of Roman Binchester on RIB Online. Colchester’s Roman inscriptions are all published, but they are also now online, as well. RIB Online was set up in 2o14 and it is a great example of ancient archaeology and modern technology in action.

RIB Online states that it presents ‘… Volume One of The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, R.G. Collingwood’s and R.P. Wright’s magisterial edition of 2,401 monumental inscriptions from Britain found prior to 1955. It also incorporates all [additions] published in the 1995 reprint of RIB (edited by R.S.O. Tomlin) and the annual survey of inscriptions published in Britannia since…’.

The Colchester section of RIB Online lists 22 Roman inscriptions found here before 1955, including some well-known examples from the town. One of these consists of only one letter, the gilt bronze ‘V’ which was found in about 1852 on the site of the Union House. Two full inscriptions are from two of Colchester’s best-known Roman objects, ie the tombstones of Facilis and Longinus, which are both on display in Colchester Castle Museum.

The Trust holds printed copies of RIB I, II and III. We have a connection with RIB III (printed in 2009), as one of the co-authors was Mark Hassall, the former chairman of the Trust’s Council of Management: the author was R S O Tomlin and the other co-author was R P Wright. Trust director Philip remembers the excavation of part of a statuette base made of Purbeck marble and inscribed with the letters ‘D E O’ at the Trust’s Lion Walk site in Colchester town centre in 1971, which is included in RIB III (pages 134-5). The other inscription from Roman Colchester in RIB III is a fragment of one letter – ‘A’ – on a thin slab of limestone which was found in 1964 and is thought to derive from the precinct wall of the Temple of Claudius.

A more recently-discovered Roman inscription was found by the Trust during our excavation of Area J North in the old garrison at Colchester in 2004 (see CAT Report 412). The Trust has been conducting archaeological projects in the old garrison since 2000, and our HQ is now a former military building in the old garrison, adjacent to part of the site of the Roman circus: we are actually in the former Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks. Area J North was also within the Artillery Barracks, not far from our HQ at the Roman circus centre! We made the unusual find in the base of a ditch on Area J North, and it consisted of several fragments of a thin, weathered Roman plaque made of Purbeck marble, three of which were inscribed. Mark Hassall provided readings of the inscribed fragments: one reads […]NTI | […] N; one reads […]TPI […] – presumably meaning t(estamento) p(oni) i(ussit) or ‘left instructions in his will for this to be set up’; and the other reads N[…] . Area J North produced evidence of a Roman cemetery bordered by a Roman road, and the inscription may have formed part of a roadside tombstone.

See the Roman inscriptions of Colchester at http://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/sites/colchester . Follow the Trust on Twitter @CATRomancircus – you can read our Tweets at https://twitter.com/CATRomanCircus without signing up to Twitter. Follow Roman Binchester on Twitter @RomanBinchester, and read their Tweets at https://twitter.com/romanbinchester .

The image shows the three fragments of inscription from Area J1 North.

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