Noviomagus Reginorum

Noviomagus Reginorum was Chichester's Roman heart, very little of which survives above ground [1]. It lay in the land of the Atrebates and is in the early medieval-founded English county of West Sussex [1]. 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 [1]. Their timber barrack blocks, supply stores, and military equipment have been excavated [1]. The camp was in the territory of the Atrebates tribe, whose rulers were friendly to the Romans, and was only used for a few years before the army withdrew and the site was developed as a Romano-British civilian settlement [1]. The town served as the capital of the Civitas Reginorum, a client kingdom ruled by Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus [1]. By the 380s, Noviomagus appears to have been largely abandoned, perhaps because of Saxon raids along the south coast [1]. Part of a fine Roman mosaic may be seen in situ beneath the floor of Chichester Cathedral [1].