Noviomagus Reginorum
Coordinates: 50°50′13″N 0°46′48″W / 50.837°N 0.780°W
Noviomagus Reginorum was Chichester's Roman heart, very little of which survives above ground. It lay in the land of the friendly Atrebates and is in the early medieval-founded English county of West Sussex. On the English Channel, Chichester Harbour, today eclipsed by Portsmouth Harbour, lies 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the south.
Name[]
The name of the town is given as "Noviomagus" in Ptolemy and "Navimago regentium" in the Ravenna cosmography.[1][2] This is believed to be a Latinization of a Brittonic placename meaning "new plain" or "new fields", in other words a clearing in woodland.[3] Its epithet is drawn from the name of the inhabitants — reconstructed variously as Reginorum, Regnorum, Regnentium, Regnensium or Regentium— in order to distinguish it from other places with the same name, notably Noviomagus in Kent. The Regini were either a sub-tribe of the Atrebates or simply the local people designated the 'people of the Kingdom' by the Roman administration.[4] In the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads, the name is abbreviated to "Regno".[5]
History[]
The settlement was first established as a winter fort for the Second Augustan Legion under Vespasian (the future emperor) shortly after the Roman invasion in AD 43.[6] Their timber barrack blocks, supply stores, and military equipment have been excavated. The camp was in the territory of the friendly Atrebates tribe and was only used for a few years before the army withdrew and the site was developed as a Romano-British civilian settlement.
Kilns have been found from the building in the early 1950s, and a bronze works from the Neronian or early Flavian period; and a dedication to Nero is dated to A.D. 58. The River Lavant was diverted to provide a public water supply.[7] The town served as the capital of the Civitas Reginorum, a client kingdom ruled by T. Claudius Cogidubnus. Cogidubnus almost certainly lived at the Palace of Fishbourne, a mile to the west. He is mentioned on the dedication stone of a temple to Neptune and Minerva. Other public buildings were also present: public baths are beneath West Street, an amphitheatre under the cattle market (this suffered stone-robbing in the late second century, by which time it was presumably no longer in use), and a basilica is thought to have been on the site of the cathedral.[8]
The town became an important residential, market and industrial centre, producing both fine tableware and enamelwork. In the 2nd century the town was surrounded by a bank and timber palisade which was later rebuilt in stone. Bastions were added in the early 4th century and the town was generally improved with much rebuilding, road surfacing and a new sewerage system. There were cemeteries outside the east, north and south gates.[9]
Decline[]
By the 380s, Noviomagus appears to have been largely abandoned, perhaps because of Saxon raids along the south coast. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the town was eventually captured towards the close of the 5th century, by the legendary Ælle of the South Saxons.[10] It was renamed after his son, Cissa, and probably retained as a royal residence.
Remains[]
- The dedication stone of the wall of the Assembly Rooms.
- Part of a fine Roman mosaic may be seen in situ beneath the floor of the cathedral.
- A second mosaic from Noviomagus may be seen at Fishbourne Roman Palace.
- One of the town's bastions may be seen in the gardens of the Bishop's Palace.
- Chichester's museum The Novium houses many finds from across the city, including the in-situ remains of a Roman bathhouse.
See also[]
- Chichester Castle – medieval castle established in the north of Noviomagus Reginorum
- Noviomagus of the Kentish, another city by the same name in Roman Britain
References[]
- ^ "Ptolemy's Geography - Book II, Chapter 2". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography". www.kmatthews.org.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Cunliffe, Barry, 1973, The Regni, Duckworth (Peoples of Roman Britain series), p. 49
- ^ Wacher, John The Towns of Roman Britain Routledge; 2nd Revised edition (5 April 1995) ISBN 978-0-7134-7319-3 p.262
- ^ "The Antonine Itinerary - Iter VII". roadsofromanbritain.org. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ A History of Britain, Richard Dargie (2007), p. 20
- ^ Cunliffe, Barry, 1973, The Regni, Duckworth (Peoples of Roman Britain series), pp. 52, 56
- ^ Cunliffe, Barry, 1973, The Regni, Duckworth (Peoples of Roman Britain series), p. 54
- ^ Alec Down: Roman Chichester, Chichester 1988, ISBN 0850334357. pp. 49-67
- ^ Welch, M. G. (1992). Anglo-Saxon England. English Heritage. p. 9. ISBN 0-7134-6566-2.
External links[]
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- History of West Sussex
- Archaeological sites in West Sussex
- Roman towns and cities in England
- Chichester