- Regnenses
Infobox Celts of England
Name = Regnenses
fullname = Regnenses
name = Regnenses
capital = "Noviomagus Reginorum " (Chichester )
location =Sussex Hampshire
origin =Gallia Belgica ,Gaul The Regnenses, Regni or Regini were the subjects of a BritishCelt ic kingdom and later a "civitas " ofRoman Britain . Their capital was "Noviomagus Regnorum", known today asChichester in modernWest 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 wasTiberius Claudius Cogidubnus :Tacitus says "certain "civitates" were given to King Cogidubnus" [Tacitus , "Agricola" : "quaedam civitates Cogidumno regi donatae".] and remarks on his loyalty. A first-century inscription found in Chichester supplies hisLatin names , indicating that he was givenRoman citizenship byClaudius orNero . Cogidubnus may have been a relative ofVerica , 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 emendation,"Kenneth H. Jackson asserted. [Kenneth H. Jackson , 1970, "Roman-British names in the Antonine itinerary." "Britannia" 1: 68-82.] "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". A.L. Rivet and C. Smith concur: "This is surely right" [A. L. F. Rivet and C. Smith, 1979, "The Place-Names of Roman Britain"]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 "Cogidubni regis legati Augusti in Britannia" ("king and imperial legate in Britain"). It more probably reads "Cogidubni regis magni Britanniae" ("great king of Britain"). [J. E. Bogaers, 1979, "King Cogidubnus of Chichester: another reading of RIB 91", "Britannia" 10: 243-254]References
External links
* [http://www.roman-britain.org/tribes/regnenses.htm Regnenses] at [http://www.roman-britain.org Roman-Britain.org]
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