FISHBOURNE

The discovery and excavation in the 1960s of the first-century palace at Fishboume [195], just west of the civitas capital at Chichester, was a sensation. Although about half the building lay under a road and modern houses, enough remained to show that the palace was the largest villa-type building in Britain, and was of exceptionally early date.

Being so close to the sea, and in an area probably controlled by the friendly Atrebates, Fishbourne was an ideal location for an early Roman base. Military equipment has been recovered from the harbour and vicinity, and at least two military-type timber buildings stood on the site of the later palace in the mid-40s. Within only five years at most these buildings had been replaced by a timber house, complete with painted plaster walls. By the 60s the timber house had gone, and in its place was a much more elaborate masonry house, with such Roman features as baths, mosaics, marble paving, painted decoration and moulded stucco. This so-called ‘proto-palace’ would have been extravagant even by the standards of the greatest villas of the fourth century. In Neronian Britain it was revolutionary, but within little more than a decade the palace was demolished.

This, at least, has been the traditional interpretative history of Fishbourne. Recent excavations have uncovered a first-century Iron Age phase beside the later palace, including early imperial Arretine ware, a precursor of samian ware. A fitting from a Roman scabbard was also found, leading to the radical suggestion that Roman development began at Fishbourne well before the invasion. Was this the place from which Verica fled to Claudius for help? Sadly, the dating evidence for this theory is thin, but the Arretine ware otherwise takes a lot of explaining.

195- Fishbourne (West Sussex).

Fishboume Palace as it might have appeared in the late first century. Although it is the largest Roman house found in Britain, its owner is unknown.

There is much less doubt about what happened later. In place of the protopalace came the palace proper, begun c. 75-80. Sprawling across 4 ha (10 acres), the new palace consisted of four wings ranged slightly asymmetrically around a central garden. Vast quantities of soil and rubble were moved to level the site. The axis was east to west, with the entrance hall in the middle of the east wing.

A path led through the formal garden to the ‘audience chamber’ in the middle of the west wing opposite. The north wing seems to have been the main residential block, consisting of a range of rooms and enclosed courtyards. The standard of decoration was quite simply beyond anything else in Britain at the time, and it is inconceivable that the workmen responsible had not come from Gaul or Italy. The collegium fabrorum, recorded about this time on the famous Chichester inscription that names Togidubnus, may well have worked here. A number of characteristic first-century black-and-white geometric mosaics were found, reminiscent of those discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum and buried in 79.

196. Marble head of a child.

This life-sized bust was found in a rubbish pit in the north wing and is believed to be of Italian or Gaulish manufacture. The subject is likely to have been the owner of Fishbourne or one of his children. Late first century.

Who owned Fishbourne? The answer is that nothing has yet been discovered to verify who that was. All we know is that he lived in a house that was unparalleled in the northwestern provinces. Obviously, Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus, the local tribal king so praised by Tacitus for his loyalty, is the prime candidate. If he had been educated and groomed in Rome, it is easy to see how he could have brought his acquired tastes back with him. It is equally possible that the Neronian ‘proto-palace’ belonged to Togidubnus and was demolished on his death by the governor, replacing it with the building visible today, who was more likely to have had the taste, money and resources to erect an Italian retreat in this remote wilderness (see Chapter 6, ‘Founding formal Towns’). The ring found nearby of Tiberius Claudius Catuarus [197], presumably a kinsman or ally of Togidubnus, does not settle the matter, since he could as easily have lost it while making a representation to the governor as visiting his tribal patron.

197* Gold ring.

Found near the palace, the ring inscribed Ti(berius) Claudius (Ca)tuarus. The owner is likely to have been an associate or kinsman of Togidubnus.

In the second and third centuries the house was significantly altered [ 198]. Money continued to be invested in decorations such as new mosaics, but by c. 100 structural changes and the installation of new baths in the east and north wings suggest that Fishbourne might have been divided into separate units. A fire in the late third century destroyed the house, and the site was abandoned. So, ironically, by the time of Roman Britain’s Golden Age of villas, the most remarkable villa of them all was in ruins and being plundered for building materials. Some of those materials may have gone to help build the fort at Portchester (see [62]), constructed at around the same time.

198. Hypocaust system.

Second-century underfloor heating at Fishboume Palace, installed during a series of modifications.