The Sussex Coast - online book
A Literary & Historical travel guide to the Sussex Coast
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22 THE SUSSEX COAST |
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 The native king (spelt Cogidumnus) is mentioned by Tacitus (Agricola, xiv.). Efforts have been made to identify the donor of the site with St. Paul's friend, Pudens, mentioned with Linus and Claudia in 2 Tim. iv. 21, and with the Pudens of Martial's epigrams who married a Briton named Claudia, likewise to prove that St. Paul himself once trod the streets of Regnum. All this would be gratifying in the highest degree if only it could be shown to be true, but the evidence is not by any means overwhelming! Holinshed, in what he calls an " impertinent discourse," gives us an account of Pudens and Claudia, but without the Chichester connection, the inscription not being known in his day. Another inscription, of Nero's reign, has been found near by, but it is formal and without special interest.
The Romans left, the Saxons came, Regnum remained. Aella who founded the Saxon kingdom, had three sons, Cissa, Wlencing and Cymen, and when he came to Britain in 477, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates, he may probably have landed about eight miles off by the inlet*generally known |
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