Camulodunum pavements. It may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height. It was not until the late 18th century that historians realised that Colchester's physical Brythonic (British Celtic) and Roman remains were the city mentioned in ancient literature as "Camulodunum". The earliest Iron Age defensive site at Colchester is the Pitchbury Ramparts earthwork north of the town between West Bergholt and Great Horkesley. The main earthwork defences of the Brythonic Celtic oppidum of "Camulodunon" were built later, beginning in the 1st century BC but most date from the 1st century AD. They are considered the most extensive of their
Traditional English pronunciation of Latin light, so the stress must fall one syllable further back, on "cas" (which coincidentally happens to be a closed syllable and therefore heavy). Therefore, the standard English pronunciation is pronounced (note however that this word has the additional irregular pronunciation of ). Whether a vowel letter is pronounced "long" in English () or "short" () is unrelated to the length of the original Latin or Greek vowel. Instead it depends on position and stress. A vowel followed by a consonant at the end of a word is short in English, except that final "-es" is always long, as in Pales