Level 3 - Life in Roman Sussex - The people of Roman Sussex

Administration & Society

The people of Roman Sussex

Roman Britain was essentially a multi-cultural society, with merchants, craftsmen and administrators coming from all over the empire. Towns such as Noviomagus especially would have attracted foreign settlers, as shown by the inscription found at Eastgate, pictured here.

Roman citizens

Soon after the conquest, individuals from leading families who had been loyal to Rome were often granted Roman citizenship. The best example of this is Togidubnus, whose title in the Chichester temple dedication was 'Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus'. As was quite normal, he adopted the family name of his sponsor, which in this case was the emperor Claudius.

The advantages of Roman citizenship within a family were numerous, as it enabled them to rise through the administrative ranks, usually over successive generations. It also served to reinforce distinctions between different classes and create some cohesion within the empire, as mid-ranking officials often rotated throughout many different provinces.

At the start of the 3rd century AD, an edict by the emperor Caracalla - the Constitutio Antoniniana - gave Roman citizenship to all within the empires boundaries, and therefore eroded some of the distinct advantages of a relative minority.

Slaves & Freedmen

In both pre and post-conquest Britain, slavery was an established part of the social system. It can be assumed that most if not all of the villa owners within Sussex would have had a multitude of slaves, from kitchen and agricultural workers to estate managers and teachers. Some of the worst conditions were probably to found in the iron working areas of the Weald, which may have used large numbers of slaves, all possibly under Imperial administration (see Craft & Industry). Slaves were occasionally manumitted (freed), and could then rise to high ranks in civilian posts. An inscription from the eastern empire, for example, records how the freed slave M. Aureilus Marcio eventually became the procurator of the province of Britain.