Regnenses

The Regnenses, Regni or Regini were a British Celtic kingdom and later a civitas of Roman Britain. Their capital was Noviomagus Regnorum, known today as Chichester in modern West Sussex.

Before the Roman conquest their land and capital appear to have been part of the territory of the Atrebates, possibly as part of a confederation of tribes. It has been suggested that, after the first phase of the conquest, the Romans maintained the Atrebates as a nominally independent client kingdom, acting as a buffer between the Roman province in the east and the unconquered tribes to the west. The ruler of the kingdom was Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus: Tacitus says "quaedam civitates Cogidumno regi donatae (certain civitates were given to King Cogidubnus)" and remarks on his loyalty. A 1st century inscription found in Chichester supplies his Latin names, indicating he was given Roman citizenship by Claudius or Nero. Cogidubnus may have been a relative of Verica, the Atrebatian king whose overthrow was the excuse for the conquest. After Cogidubnus's death, the kingdom would have been incorporated into the directly-ruled Roman province and divided into several civitates, including the Atrebates, Belgae, and Regnenses (interpreted as Latin "people of the kingdom").

This theory, of course, depends on reconstructing the name of the civitas as Regnenses, which is far from certain, as many linguists favour a native Regni or Regini. "Even the reading of the genitive plural tribe name in Ravennas as Regnentium is a tendentious emadation ... To go further and turn all this into Regnenses, 'The People of the Kingdom', is more than rash ... The tribal name in Ptolemy is Regnoi, Rignoi, or Reginoi ... It is proposed ... that this was British Regini" (Jackson 1970). "This is surely right" (Rivet & Smith 1979).

Likewise, the theory that Cogidubnus was created legatus, a rank only ever given to senators, is based on reconstructing the damaged Chichester inscription to read as Cogidubni regis legati Augusti in Britannia ("king and imperial legate in Britain"). It more probably reads Cogidubni regis magni Britanniae ("great king of Britain") (Bogaers 1979).

References

*Tacitus, Agricola 14
*Bogaers, J. E. 1979. King Cogidubnus of Chichester: another reading of RIB 91. Britannia 10: 243-254.
*Jackson, K. 1970. Roman-British names in the Antonine itinerary. Britannia 1: 68-82.
*Rivet, A. L. F. & Smith, C. 1979. The Place-Names of Roman Britain.

External links

*Regnenses at Roman-Britain.org

See also

List of Celtic tribes