RATAE CORITANORUM
(Leicester) Leicestershire,
England.
Capital of the Roman civitas of the
Coritani in the E midlands. In late pre-Roman times this
tribe had a coinage, but the importance of Leicester itself in that period is uncertain. It seems probable, on the
evidence of pottery, that a small native settlement existed from at least ca. A.D. 10, and that after 43 this
was enlarged as the vicus of a Roman fort or fortress.
Ratae occupied a strategic position at the junction of the
Fosse Way with a road from Colchester, near a crossing
of the river Soar.
Little is known as yet of the strength of the military
occupation or its duration, but the late appearance of
civic public buildings may indicate that it lasted until
the 2d c. A milestone of Hadrian (
RIB 2244) inscribed
A RATIS II implies the existence of the town as an administrative center by A.D. 119-120. A military diploma,
or grant of Roman citizenship to an auxiliary soldier,
found in Roumania (
CIL XVI, 160) and issued in 106
to M. Ulpius Novantico son of Adcobrovatus, gives his
origo as Ratis. This formula has been held to imply that
by that date Leicester was already a chartered town
(municipium); but the special circumstances of this
grant make the conclusion doubtful.
Remains of the forum have recently been identified:
91 by 131 m overall, with a basilica 11.3 m wide at
the N end. It was erected perhaps in the reign of Hadrian.
Part of a large courtyard house NE of the forum has
been excavated: the walls were built of unfired clay
bricks on masonry sleeper walls. Erected early in the
2d c., it was later decorated with mosaics and some remarkable frescos of Classical character depicting human
and other figures on a perspective architectural background; but before the end of the 2d c. it had fallen into
decay and seems to have been used in connection with a
tanning industry. About 180 it was replaced by a macellum planned like a smaller version of the forum, with a
basilica at its S end. These facts point to more space
being required by traders, and suggest increasing commercial and industrial prosperity. The public baths, excavated in 1936-39 just W of the forum, occupied half an insula. They were completed in two stages between
ca. 130 and 150. Two parallel and symmetrical bath
suites extend W from an enclosed exercise area, a basilica
or palaestra. Much of the W wall of this area still stands
ca. 7.2 m high: called the Jewry Wall, it is one of the
major monuments of Roman Britain. Thus the main
civic development of Ratae, as illustrated by its more important buildings, was delayed until the Hadrianic-Antonine period.
The defenses, consisting of contemporary rampart,
wall, and ditch enclosing just over 40 ha, were erected
probably early in the 3d c. The town has yielded over 40
mosaics, the best known being the Peacock pavement and
one depicting Kyparissos and his stag. Another important
find is the box flue-tile on which the maker scrawled the
words PRIMVS FECIT X, interesting evidence for literacy
in Latin among the working classes. But the sherd inscribed VERECVNDA LYDIA LVCIVS GLADIATOR is now known
not to be a local find. Graffiti scratched on some of the
wall plaster mentioned above express various obscenities
in Latin, another indication that it was widely used as a
language of first choice. A short distance S of the town
is a linear earthwork, the Raw Dykes, which has been
identified as an aqueduct although the low level of the
system would have made it difficult to supply water to
the baths and impossible in much of the town. Alternatively it may have been a canal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Graffiti:
JRS (1964) 182; Forum:
Britannia 4 (1973) 1-83; Baths: K. M. Kenyon,
The
Jewry Wall Site, Leicester (1948).
S. S. FRERE
