Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or
Togidubnus) was a 1st century king of the
RegnensesThe Regnenses, Regni or Regini were the subjects of a British kingdom and later a civitas of Roman Britain. Their capital was Noviomagus Reginorum, "New Field of the Regneses",known today as Chichester in modern West Sussex....
in early
Roman BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
.
Chichester and the nearby
Roman villaA Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
at
FishbourneFishbourne Roman Palace, in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England is an important Roman archaeological site in Roman Britain. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at...
, believed to be Cogidubnus' palace, were part of the territory of the
AtrebatesThe Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquests. According to Alexander MacBain, the name Attrebates is related to the Irish aitreibh, ‘building,’ Early Irish aittreb, ‘building,’ and Welsh adref, ‘homewards,’ going on to state that the Celtic root treb corresponds...
before the conquest. Cogidubnus may therefore have been an heir of
VericaVerica was a British client king of the Roman Empire in the years preceding the Claudian invasion of 43 AD.From his coinage, he appears to have been king of the Atrebates tribe and a son of Commius. He succeeded his elder brother Eppillus as king in about 15 AD, reigning at Calleva Atrebatum,...
, the Atrebatic king whose overthrow prompted the Roman conquest. After the conquest they were part of the
civitas of the Regnenses, which was probably Cogidubnus' kingdom before being incorporated into the Roman province.
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or
Togidubnus) was a 1st century king of the
RegnensesThe Regnenses, Regni or Regini were the subjects of a British kingdom and later a civitas of Roman Britain. Their capital was Noviomagus Reginorum, "New Field of the Regneses",known today as Chichester in modern West Sussex....
in early
Roman BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
.
Chichester and the nearby
Roman villaA Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
at
FishbourneFishbourne Roman Palace, in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England is an important Roman archaeological site in Roman Britain. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at...
, believed to be Cogidubnus' palace, were part of the territory of the
AtrebatesThe Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquests. According to Alexander MacBain, the name Attrebates is related to the Irish aitreibh, ‘building,’ Early Irish aittreb, ‘building,’ and Welsh adref, ‘homewards,’ going on to state that the Celtic root treb corresponds...
before the conquest. Cogidubnus may therefore have been an heir of
VericaVerica was a British client king of the Roman Empire in the years preceding the Claudian invasion of 43 AD.From his coinage, he appears to have been king of the Atrebates tribe and a son of Commius. He succeeded his elder brother Eppillus as king in about 15 AD, reigning at Calleva Atrebatum,...
, the Atrebatic king whose overthrow prompted the Roman conquest. After the conquest they were part of the
civitas of the Regnenses, which was probably Cogidubnus' kingdom before being incorporated into the Roman province. The public baths, amphitheatre and forum in
SilchesterSilchester is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It is best known for the adjacent archaeological site and Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, which was first occupied by the Romans in about AD 45 and includes what is thought to be the best-preserved Roman wall in...
were probably built in Cogidubnus' time. He is also a significant character in the
Cambridge Latin CourseThe Cambridge Latin Course is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school students. First published in 1970, the series is now in its fifth edition, and has sold over 3.5 million copies...
.
Sources
In
TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
's
AgricolaThe Agricola is a book by the Roman historian Tacitus, written c 98, which recounts the life of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general. It also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain...
, published ca. 98, where his name appears as "Cogidumnus" in most manuscripts and "Togidumnus" in one, he is said to have governed several
civitates (states or tribal territories) as a
client rulerThe Roman client kingdoms in Britain were native tribes who chose to align themselves with the Roman Empire because they saw it as the best option for self-preservation or for protection from other hostile tribes...
after the
Roman conquestBy AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion of Britain, Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire...
, and to have been loyal "down to our own times" (at least into the 70s).
He is also known from an inscription on a damaged slab of marble, found in
ChichesterChichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
in 1723 and datable to the late 1st century. As reconstructed by J.E. Bogaers, it reads (reconstructed parts in square brackets):
[N]EPTVNO·ET·MINERVAE
TEMPLVM
[PR]O·SALVTE·DO[MVS]·DIVINA[E]
[EX]·AVCTORITAT[E·TI]·CLAVD·
[CO]GIDVBNI·R[EG·MA]GNI·BRIT·
[COLE]GIVM·FABROR·ET[·Q]VI·IN·E[O]
[SVNT]·D·S·D·DONANTE·APEAM
[...]ENTE PVDENTINI·FIL
Which translates as:
The guild of artisans and its members provide (this) temple to NeptuneNeptune is the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology, a brother of Jupiter and Pluto. He is analogous with but not identical to the god Poseidon of Greek mythology. The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to the Etruscan god Nethuns....
and MinervaMinerva was the Roman goddess whom Hellenizing Romans from the second century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic and the inventor of music...
at their own expense for the protection of the Divine House, on the authority of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, great king of Britain (or "of Britons"). [...]dens, son of Pudentinus, donated the land.
Another fragmentary inscription, reading
[...]GIDVBNVS, was found at the Gallo-Roman town of
Mediolanum SantonumMediolanum Santonum was a Roman town of southwestern Gaul, now Saintes. It was founded in about 20 BC in connection with an expansion of the network of Roman roads serving Burdigala...
(modern
SaintesSaintes is a commune in south-western France, in the Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture.-History:In Roman times, the town was called Mediolanum Santonum. It was founded in about 20 BC...
, south-west
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
), although it is unlikely this refers to the same person.
Naming difficulties
In the Chichester inscription, the first two letters of the king's native name, given in the
genitive caseIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
, are missing. It is usually reconstructed as "Cogidubnus", following the majority of manuscripts of Tacitus, but some, including Charles E Murgia, believe "Togidubnus" is the more linguistically correct form. The Roman names "
Tiberius Claudius" indicate that he was given
Roman citizenshipCitizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged social status afforded to certain individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.It is hard to offer meaningful generalities across the entire Roman period, as the nature and availability of citizenship was affected by legislation, for...
by the
emperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
ClaudiusTiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54...
, or possibly by
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
, and probably not, as has been suggested, that he was related to
Claudia RufinaClaudia Rufina was a woman of British descent who lived in Rome circa 90 AD and was known to the poet Martial. Martial refers to her in Epigrams XI:53, describing her as "caeruleis [...] Britannis edita" , and praising her for her beauty, education and fertility.She is...
, a woman of British descent whose marriage to
Aulus PudensAulus Pudens was a native of Umbria and a centurion in the Roman army in the late 1st century. He was a friend of the poet Martial, who addressed several of his Epigrams to him...
in
RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
in the 90s is mentioned by the poet
MartialMarcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
.
He is nearly contemporary with
TogodumnusTogodumnus was a historical king of the British Catuvellauni tribe at the time of the Roman conquest. He can probably be identified with the legendary British king Guiderius....
, a prince of the
CatuvellauniThe Catuvellauni were a Belgic tribe or state of south-eastern Britain before the Roman conquest.The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their kings before the conquest can be traced through numismatic evidence and scattered references in classical histories. They are mentioned by Dio Cassius, who...
mentioned by
Dio CassiusLucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...
, and the similarity of their names has led some, including the distinguished archaeologist
Barry CunliffeSir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, b. , known as Barry Cunliffe, was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007.-Biography:...
, to suggest that they may be one and the same, making the Fishbourne king a son of
CunobelinusCunobelinus was a historical king in pre-Roman Britain, known from passing mentions by classical historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and from his many inscribed coins...
and brother of
CaratacusCaratacus was a historical British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who led the British resistance to the Roman conquest...
. However the sources do not support this: according to Dio, Togodumnus was killed in 43 in the early stages of the
Roman conquest of BritainBy AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion of Britain, Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire...
, while Tacitus says that Cogidubnus remained loyal to Rome as a client king into the later part of the 1st century. It is of course not unusual for two people to have similar names (cf.
DubnovellaunusDubnovellaunus or Dumnovellaunus was the name of at least one, and possibly several kings of south-eastern Britain in the late 1st century BC/early 1st century AD, known from coin legends and from a mention in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti....
). As the Chichester inscription supports Tacitus, Cunliffe's interpretation would appear to imply an error in Dio's
Roman History or in its transmission.
Villa at Fishbourne
Barry Cunliffe has put forward the theory that
Fishbourne Roman PalaceFishbourne Roman Palace, in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England is an important Roman archaeological site in Roman Britain. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at...
was Cogidubnus's seat. Dr Miles Russell suggests that it may instead have been built for
Sallustius LucullusSallustius Lucullus was a governor of Roman Britain during the late 1st century, holding office after Gnaeus Julius Agricola although it is unclear whether he directly inherited the post or if there was another unknown governor in between...
, a Roman governor of Britain of the late 1st century, who may have been the son of the British prince
AdminiusAdminius, Amminius or Amminus was a son of Cunobelinus, ruler of the Catuvellauni, a tribe of Iron Age Britain. His name can be interpreted as Celtic *ad-mindios, "to be crowned"....
.
Sources
- Roger Gale (1722), "An Account of a Roman Inscription, Found at Chichester", Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775) Vol. 32 (1722), pp. 391-400
- Anthony A Barrett (1979), "The Career of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus", Britannia 10, pp. 227-242
- J. E. Bogaers (1979), "King Cogidubnus in Chichester: Another Reading of 'RIB' 91", Britannia 10, pp. 243-254
- Peter A. Clayton (ed) (1980), A Companion to Roman Britain
- Sheppard Frere (1987), Britannia: a history of Roman Britain (3rd edition)
- Martin Henig, "Togidubnus and the Roman liberation", British Archaeology, no 37, September 1998.
External links