When in Rome...

The Novium, in Tower Street, Chichester, is built around the remains of a bath house discovered underneath a car park. Used by the Romans as a meeting room, it would have been alive with chatter as its customers discussed business and played games.

It also houses the spectacular Chilgrove Mosaic, discovered at the 4th-century Roman villa at Chilgrove, and the Jupiter Stone, a portion of a sculpture dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter, which was found in West Street in 1934. They are only two of the 150,000 artifacts housed across three galleries inside the new £6.9 million building.

“The Novium has already established itself as an iconic building in Chichester,” says Myles Cullen, from Chichester District Council, which funded the museum. “It’s one of the biggest projects this council has ever undertaken and brings together the district’s rich history under one roof.”

The sheer number of Roman buildings and artifacts in the county puts Sussex at the “top of the league”, says archaeologist Oliver Gilkes. So far, up to 40 Roman villas have been discovered here. But the jewel in Sussex’s Roman crown is the opulent palace at Fishbourne, discovered in 1960 by workers laying a new water pipe.

“This is a huge palace, probably the biggest in Europe,” explains Mr Gilkes.

“We still don’t know the full extent of it. And it is also one of the earliest Roman buildings, dating from the first century AD, possibly as early as AD80, making it incredibly important.”

The north wing of the complex contains more than 20 remarkably well-preserved mosaics, including Cupid On A Dolphin. Outside is a formal Roman garden, replanted to the original plan, which featured box hedging and specialist plant beds for plants used in cooking, medicines and dyeing. Among the artifacts found is a sculptured marble head, believed to be a rare image of the Emperor Nero.

In contrast, the villa at Bignor was once a small farmhouse, discovered by farmer George Tupper in 1811. It was a huge tourist attraction when it opened to the public in 1814. In its north wing, with its underfloor-heated dining room and bath house, are some of the finest Roman mosaics in Britain, depicting scenes such as a Gladiator and Medusa.

In Barcombe the decade-long excavation of a villa has uncovered an unusually large establishment, including a huge bath house. Its size indicates it was an important centre, perhaps for the military or as a mercantile or agricultural base, and may add further proof of the pivotal role Sussex played in the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43.

Before the invasion tribes ruled in Britain, with a large stretch of the southeast, including Sussex, under the control of the Atrebates tribe. Its leader between AD10-42 was Verica, who was exiled in AD42 when the tribe came under threat from the more powerful Catuvellauni tribe north of the Thames. Verica fled to Rome to ask for help from the Roman emperor Claudius, a godsend for an emperor with a credibility crisis.

Born with a limp and partial deafness, Claudius was afflicted with a stammer, confused speech and weak hands, and when excited he slobbered and his nose ran. Shunned by his family as a child, his ailments saved him from the purges of nobles by his two predecessors, Tiberius and Caligula, Claudius’s nephew.

So thorough were the purges that when Caligula was assassinated in AD41, Claudius was the family’s only surviving male heir and in AD41 he became emperor. He was the first to be declared by the Praetorian Guard, the emperors’ force of bodyguards, rather than the senate. It left him in a vulnerable position, so Verica’s entreaty two years later gave him the ideal opportunity to score a military victory and bolster his position.

Rome had long seen Britain as a source of slaves and wealth, due to its mines, so Claudius sent four legions of 40,000 men under Aulus Plautius. Up until the 1980s it was thought the main force landed in Richborough in Kent. But historians now believe it was in fact at Chichester harbour, where Verica’s people welcomed them with open arms.

The Romans built a military fort at Chichester in AD44, conveniently close to the River Lavant, which supplied it with water and offered a means of reaching the harbour. As a reward for the Atrebates’ loyalty, Verica’s descendant Tiberius Claudius Togidnubus was appointed a “puppet” king of Sussex.

He took over the fort and transformed it into a town called Noviomagus, or “new market place”, and built himself a palace fit for a king at nearby Fishbourne.

During his reign many of the villas around the Sussex countryside were established and roads built. When he died later in the first century AD, Sussex became part of the Roman province, with the area around Noviomagus renamed Regni.

The Romans brought prosperity, sophistication and innovation to Sussex, but barbarian invasions of Britain in the third century AD led to a decline in palaces and villas, and the wooden-framed palace succumbed to fire at the end of the third century.

“Some like to believe that Fishbourne was burnt down by the blood and thunder of the barbarians,” says Mr Gilkes. “But it was just as likely to be a dropped candle.”

A rare hoard of Roman coins found in Sussex is on display at Brighton Museum until Sunday, September 2. Afterwards, the recently acquired High Weald Roman Coin Hoard will tour a number of Sussex museums.
Visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk .

Fishbourne Roman Palace, Roman Way, Fishbourne, near Chichester. Call 01243 785859 or visit www.sussexpast.co.uk .

Bignor Roman Villa, Bignor, Pulborough. Call 01798 869259 or visit www.bignorromanvilla.co.uk .
The Novium, Tower Street, Chichester. Open Mon-Sat 10-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm. Call 01243 775888 or visit www.chichester.gov.uk .

To join the study days at Fishbourne and Bignor with Oliver Gilkes, or to learn more about the excavation at Barcombe, contact Andante Travels on 01722 713800, or visit www.andantetravels.co.uk .