[4] 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.

[1] 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[7] towards him.

[1] 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.

[1] 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).

[1] 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.

[1][3] 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.

[1] As the symbol of Roman rule in Britain, the colonia of Camulodunum was the first target of the rebels, with its Temple seen in British eyes as the "arx aeternae dominationis" ("stronghold of everlasting domination") according to Tacitus.

[4] The town was destroyed, with survivors taking refuge in the cella of the Temple, whose large bronze doors and strong, windowless chamber provided a safe haven.

[4]The decapitated bronze head of a statue was found in the River Alde in Suffolk, and has been interpreted as having been taken from the Temple of Claudius by the Iceni.

[1] Evidence has been uncovered from excavations in 2014 shows that the columns of the temple precinct entrance may also have been demolished in the Norman period to allow the building of the castle's bailey.