Level 3 - Life in Roman Sussex - Administration & Society

Administration & Society

System of Administration

Civitas divisions in the province of Britannia

When Togidubnus's kingdom became part of the Roman province, it became subject to the Roman system of provisional administration. Overall responsibility for the province lay with the governor, residing in London, who had extensive military and administrative powers. He was assisted - and indeed checked - by the procurator, who was responsible for administering finance and collecting taxes.

The country was divided into a number of regions called civitates - roughly corresponding to the old tribal areas - and each sent a delegate to a provincial council in order to swear allegiance to the emperor on behalf of their people. Thus, Chichester became capital of the civitas of the Regni, a territory that included most of Sussex and parts of Hampshire and Surrey. The civitas was further sub-divided into districts called pagi, the locations of which in Sussex may have corresponded with the positions of the large 1st century villas (see The Countryside).

Chichester, as the capital and only town in the region, would have been the seat of the ordo of decurions, or members of the council, who administered public administrative duties within the civitas. They commonly numbered one hundred, and two pairs of magistrates (Duoviri iuridicundo) were annually elected from their number to hear all petty legal cases. Membership usually required a minimum age of thirty and ownership of a property of minimum size within the civitas. Villas such as Angmering, Chilgrove and Pulborough would therefore almost definitely have been the residences of one or more decurions, who could well have been descendants of the old tribal aristocracy.

Changes in the later Empire

4th century division of provinces in Britain

The most significant administrative changes to occur in Roman Britain came at the end of the third century, after a period of general unrest within the province. The empire was divided into four, and Britain became a diocese within the wider prefecture of Gaul. The province, which had already been divided at the end of the 2nd century, was further sub-divided into four regions, with the Regni lying in Maxima Caesariensis, the capital of which was London.

Military duties were separated and given to new commanders with the title Dux (Duke) and Comes (Count). One such position, the Count of the Saxon Shore, is recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum, and presumably dealt with Germanic raids along the coastal districts, including Sussex (see The Military). The general importance of the town councils declined in the 4th century, and it is unlikely that the one at Noviomagus (Chichester) was up to full strength. It was not helped by the increasing financial responsibilities and pressures imposed on council members. Elite individuals now seem to have spent more time and money enlarging and improving their personal property, such the villa at Bignor, than paying for municipal public monuments.

The break down of centralized authority at the start of the 5th century resulted in the rise of many independent territories. They were ruled by certain members of the local elite from places such as the walled city of Chichester and the fort at Pevensey, which provided some degree of protection from barbarian raiding.