Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus | |
---|---|
King of the Regni or Regnenses tribe | |
Reign | c. 43 – c. 80 |
Predecessor | Verica (king of the southern Atrebates tribe) |
Successor | Roman Empire |
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or Togidubnus, Togidumnus or similar; see naming difficulties) was a 1st-century king of the Regni or Regnenses tribe in early Roman Britain.
Chichester and the nearby Roman villa at Fishbourne, believed by some to have been Cogidubnus' palace, were probably part of the territory of the Atrebates tribe before the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43. Cogidubnus may therefore have been an heir of Verica, the Atrebatic king whose overthrow prompted the emperor Claudius to invade. After the conquest, the area formed part of the civitas of the Regnenses / Regni, possibly Cogidubnus' kingdom before being incorporated into the Roman province. The public baths, amphitheatre and forum in Silchester were probably built in Cogidubnus' time.
In Tacitus's Agricola , published c. 98, where his name appears as "Cogidumnus" in most manuscripts although they can be considered as copies, and "Togidumnus" in one, [1] he is said to have governed several civitates (states or tribal territories) as a client ruler after the Roman conquest, and to have been loyal "down to our own times" (at least into the 70s). [2]
He is also known from an inscription on a damaged slab of marble found in Chichester in 1723 and datable to the late 1st century. As reconstructed by J.E. Bogaers, [3] it reads (reconstructed parts in square brackets):
[N]EPTVNO·ET·MIN[ER]VAE
TEMPLVM
[PR]O·SALVTE·DO[MVS]·DIVINA[E]
[EX]·AVCTORITAT[E·TI]·CLAVD·
[CO]GIDVBNI·R[EG·MA]GNI·BRIT· [4]
[COLE]GIVM·FABROR·ET[·Q]VI·IN·E[O]
[SVNT]·D·S·D·DONANTE·AREAM
[1]
Which is translated as:
To Neptune and Minerva, for the welfare of the Divine Temple, by the authority of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, great king of the Britons, the guild of smiths and those in it gave this temple at their own expense ...ens, son of Pudentinus, presented the forecourt.
Another fragmentary inscription, reading [...]GIDVBNVS, was found at the Gallo-Roman town of Mediolanum Santonum (modern Saintes, south-west France), although it is unlikely this refers to the same person.
In the Chichester inscription, the first two letters of the king's native name, given in the genitive case, are missing. It is usually reconstructed as "Cogidubnus", following the majority of manuscripts of Tacitus, but some, including Charles E Murgia, [5] believe "Togidubnus" is the more linguistically correct form as a Celtic name. The Roman names "Tiberius Claudius" indicate that he was given Roman citizenship by the emperor Claudius, or possibly by Nero, and probably not, as has been suggested, that he was related to Claudia Rufina, a woman of British descent whose marriage to Aulus Pudens in Rome in the 90s is mentioned by the poet Martial. [6]
He is nearly contemporary with Togodumnus, a prince of the Catuvellauni tribe mentioned by Dio Cassius, [7] and the similarity of their names has led some, including Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University [8] [9] [10] and the distinguished archaeologist Professor Barry Cunliffe of Oxford University, [11] to suggest that they may be one and the same, thereby making the Fishbourne king a son of Cunobelinus and brother of Caratacus. However the sources do not appear to support this: according to Dio, Togodumnus was killed in 43 in the early stages of the Roman conquest of Britain, whilst 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. Dubnovellaunus). As the Chichester inscription supports Tacitus, Cunliffe's interpretation would appear to imply an error in Dio's Roman History or in its transmission, and some, including John Hind, have argued that Dio misinterpreted his sources as reading that Togodumnus had died when he had merely been defeated. [12]
Barry Cunliffe (the archaeologist who uncovered Fishbourne) has put forward the theory that Fishbourne Roman Palace was Cogidubnus's royal seat. Certainly the early phase of the palace, which dates to around AD 65, could have belonged to him or to one Tiberius Claudius Catuarus, whose inscribed gold ring was found in excavations close by. Miles Russell, however, has suggested that, as the main constructional phase of the palace proper at Fishbourne seems to have been in the early AD 90s, during the reign of the emperor Domitian who built the Domus Flavia, a palace of similar design upon the Palatine Hill in Rome, Fishbourne may instead have been built for Sallustius Lucullus, a Roman governor of Britain of the late 1st century. [13] Lucullus may have been the son of the British prince Adminius. [14]
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus appears in the Cambridge Latin Course Books II and III and lives in the Palace of Fishbourne mentioned above. He falls ill during the book and moves to Bath, since he believes the sacred baths can cure him of his illness, but he meets Salvius. In the books, he is in the middle of a conspiracy against his life, headed by the wicked Salvius and the Emperor Domitian. He dies under house arrest in the spring of 83, after being ill for some time, and his will is recreated by Salvius in order to give himself the Palace of Fishbourne.
He is also the central character in Mark Patton's novel, An Accidental King, [15] and a minor character in Douglas Jackson's novel, Claudius. [16]
He is the father of the central characters of They of Rome [17]
He is a minor character in Lindsey Davis's novels, A Body in the Bath House . [18] and The Jupiter Myth . [19]
He is the first-person protagonist in Linda Proud's novel Chariot of the Soul, [20] in which he describes his education in Rome, studying Stoicism with Seneca, and his return to Britain charged with the mission of persuading the tribal kings not to resist the invasion of the Romans.
He is mentioned in Ben Aaronovitch's novel Broken Homes, where he is one of the "Rivers of London”, and in Simon Scarrow’s novel ‘Under the Eagle’.
Julia Agrippina, also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.
The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by AD 87, when the Stanegate was established. The conquered territory became the Roman province of Britannia. Attempts to conquer northern Britain (Caledonia) in the following centuries were not successful.
Fishbourne Roman Palace or Fishbourne Villa is in the village of Fishbourne, near Chichester in West Sussex. The palace is the largest known Roman residence north of the Alps, and has an unusually early date of 75 AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain.
Caratacus was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain.
Aulus Plautius was a Roman politician and general of the mid-1st century. He began the Roman conquest of Britain in 43, and became the first governor of the new province, serving from 43 to 46.
The Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region.
The Catuvellauni were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century.
The Regni were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes living in Britain prior to the Roman Conquest, and later a civitas or canton of Roman Britain. They lived in what is now Sussex, as well as small parts of Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, with their tribal heartland at Noviomagus Reginorum.
Cunobeline or Cunobelin, also known by his name's Latin form Cunobelinus, was a king in pre-Roman Britain from about AD 9 to about AD 40. He is mentioned in passing by the classical historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and many coins bearing his inscription have been found. He controlled a substantial portion of south-eastern Britain, including the territories of the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes, and is called "King of the Britons" by Suetonius. Cunobeline may have been a client king of Rome, based on the images and legends appearing on his coins. Cunobeline appears in British legend as Cynfelyn (Welsh), Kymbelinus or Cymbeline, as in the play by William Shakespeare.
Togodumnus was king of the British Catuvellauni tribe, whose capital was at St Albans, at the time of the Roman conquest. He can probably be identified with the legendary British king Guiderius. He is usually thought to have led the fight against the Romans alongside his brother but to have been killed early in the campaign. However some authorities now argue that he sided with the Romans and is one and the same person as the client-king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, whose original name may have been Togidubnus or Togodumnus.
Sallustius Lucullus was a governor of Roman Britain during the late 1st century AD, holding office after Gnaeus Julius Agricola, although it is unclear whether he was the immediate successor or if there was another unknown governor in between. Lucullus has been described as "an enigma", as the only definite fact known about him is Suetonius' report that the emperor Domitian had him executed for allowing a new type of lance to be named after him.
Adminius, Amminius or Amminus was a son of Cunobelinus, ruler of the Catuvellauni, a tribe of Iron Age Britain. His name can be interpreted as Brittonic *Ad-minios, "he who is very tender".
The Roman client kingdoms in Britain were native tribes which 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. Alternatively, the Romans created some client kingdoms when they felt influence without direct rule was desirable. Client kingdoms were ruled by client kings. In Latin these kings were referred to as rex sociusque et amicus, which translates to "king, ally, and friend". The type of relationships between client kingdoms and Rome was reliant on the individual circumstances in each kingdom.
The site of the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43 has been a matter of academic debate. Although it is generally believed that the force left from Gesoriacum (Boulogne), it is possible that part of the fleet sailed from near the mouth of the Rhine. Rutupiæ has earthworks that defended a bridgehead dating from this period and is often stated as the site of the landing, though there are plausible arguments in favour of a landing further west along the south coast of Britain.
Claudia Rufina was a woman of British descent who lived in Rome c. 90 AD and was known to the poet Martial. Martial refers to her in Epigrams XI:53, describing her as "caeruleis [...] Britannis edita". He praises her for her beauty, education and fertility.
The Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school pupils. It provides a grounding in vocabulary, grammar and sense which allows progression through Common Entrance exams into a Secondary, or, Public School. First published in 1970, the series is in its fifth edition as of April 2019. It has reached high status in the United Kingdom, being the most-used Latin course in the country for secondary school pupils, and being used by 85% of Latin-teaching schools.
A Body in the Bath House is a 2001 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the 13th book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Rome and Britannia in AD 75, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The title refers to the discovery of a corpse hidden beneath the floor of one bath house and a murder which takes place in another. American editions spell "bathhouse" in the title as one word.
Noviomagus Reginorum was Chichester's Roman heart, very little of which survives above ground. It lay in the land of the 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+1⁄2 miles south.
The Chichester inscription, Chichester stone or Pudens stone is an inscription on a damaged slab of marble, found in Chichester in 1723 and datable to the late 1st century.