Before the Romans
Nearly 2000 years ago, before the Roman invasion of Britain, Verulamium (known then as Verlamion) was the capital of a powerful and wealthy local tribe called the Catuvellauni.
Iron Age gold stater of Tasciovanus, pre-43 AD.
In this part of the museum you can see some of the objects they used and treasured, like pottery, jewellery, coins, horse harness, armour and luxury goods imported from Europe.
This is a gold coin called a stater. It shows a horse and rider and the letters 'TASC', which stand for the Catuvellauni king Tasciovanus.
In AD 43 the Romans invaded Britain and by late summer the tribes in the local area had been conquered. At the museum you can see rare surviving examples of the armour and weapons of the Roman soldiers who defeated the Catuvellauni.
Watch a fascinating audio-visual presentation that uses computer animation, re-enactment and archive film to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Roman town and its discovery by archaeologists.
