The Colchester Vase is an ancient Roman British vase made from local clay from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, dating to 175AD, depicting a

gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

battle between two individuals: Memnon and Valentinus, which are believed to be stage names. It was discovered in a Roman-era grave in 1853, which held the deceased's cremated remains. It is currently held in the

Colchester Castle Colchester Castle is a Norman architecture, Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, d ...

Museum collection, and is renowned as one of the finest pieces of Roman-British pottery in existence.

Description

The vase is 17.5 cm in diameter and 22.5 cm high, weighs 1 kilogram and is made of coarse local clay. It is a variant of

Ancient Roman pottery Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond. Monte Testaccio is a huge mound, waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken amphorae u ...

, called black ware, which was used primarily for storage or cooking. The vase derives either from Durobrivian or Castor Ware. It was discovered in 1853 in West Lodge Road by local antiquarian John Taylor, who donated it to the Colchester Castle Museum. The vase contained the cremated remains of a 40+ year old, non-local resident. Initially presumed to be an imported object, thanks to the sophistication of the figures on the vase, a 2023 analysis of the vase indicates a local origin. The vase demonstrates the extent of gladiatorial combat on the outskirts of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. The text on the vase was etched in while the clay was soft before the vase was baked in a kiln. Roman Colchester (Colonia Claudia Victricensis), or

Camulodunum Camulodunum ( ; ), the Roman Empire, Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important Castra, castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "wikt:strapline, strapline" in the 1960s ...

, is famous as a center of pottery production during the 3rd century, with 40 documented kilns in the town.

Imagery

Camulodunum was a major hub of Roman Britain, boasting public recreational structures including two Roman theatres in which the gladiator battle could have taken place. A similar jar, now housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, attests to such recreational activities in the city. The jar is decorated with three different scenes, relating to the different recreational activities common at the time. The inscription on the vase reads:

'Secundus (and) Mario'/'Memnon the secutor (victor) nine (times)'/'Valentinu(s) of the Thirtieth Legion'

The first scene depicts animal-animal fighting, with a dog chasing two deer and a hare. The second scene depicts the bestiarius, the animal hunting spectacle, with venators named Secundus and Mario fighting a bear. Mario is a

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...

of "Marius"; the location of the names do not specifically tag or identify the beast-fighting figures. The second scene depicts the gladiator battle of two men: Memnon, a

secutor A secutor (''pl.'' secutores) was a class of gladiator in ancient Rome. Thought to have originated around 50 AD, the secutor ("follower" or "chaser", from ''sequor'' "I follow, come or go after") was armed similarly to the '' murmillo'' gladia ...

and Valentinus, a

retiarius A ''retiarius'' (plural ''retiarii''; literally, "net-man" in Latin) was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a net casting, weighted net (''rete'' (3rd decl.), hence the name), a three-pointed trident (''f ...

. The text identifies Valentinus as a member of the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix, though it is noted that the Legio XXX was not based in Britain, but rather in

Germania Inferior ''Germania Inferior'' ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed ''Germania Secunda'' in the 4th century AD, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Cl ...

, in present-day

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the ...

. Memnon is labelled as the victor of the match, with "VIIII" indicating this is his ninth victory, with Valentinus depicted as raising his finger in defeat. Memnon, a reference to the mythical Ethiopian king in the Trojan War, is believed to be a stage name for the winning fighter, and also extant evidence of Roman residents of African descent in the area.

References

{{reflist Gladiatorial combat Romano-British pottery Roman Colchester 1853 archaeological discoveries