Neptuno & Minervæ Templum pro Salute Domus Divinæ, ex Auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni Regis, Legati Augusti in Brittanniâ, Collegium Fabrorum, & Qui in eo a Sacris [or Honorati] sunt, De suo Dedicaverunt, Donante aream Pudente Pudentini Filio.
Chichester, by this inscription found at it, must have been a town of eminence very soon after the Romans had settled here, and in process of time seems to have been much frequented, by the Roman roads, still visible, that terminate here from Portsmouth, Midhurst, and Arundel; though, what is very strange, we have no Roman name now for it. I once thought it might have put in its claim for Anderida, which our antiquaries have not yet agreed to fix any where, being situated, very near, both to the Sylva Anderida, and the southern Coast of the island, the two properties of that city: vid. Camb. Brit. and Somner’s Roman Ports and Forts. But Henry of Huntingdon, who lived in the time of Henry II. telling us, that the Saxons so destroyed Andredecester, that Nunquam postea reædificata fuit, & locus tantum quasi nobilissimæ urbis transeuntibus ostenditur desolatus, pag. 312. (Vid. Dr. Tabor’s Discourse of Anderida, Philos. Transact. No 356.) it could not be Chichester; for that was not only rebuilt before his time, but was a place of such note, that when the bishops, soon after the Conquest, anno Dom. 1076. removed their churches from small decayed towns, where several of them were then seated, in urbes celebriores, Stigand, then bishop of Selsey, settled his episcopal chair at that place.
I shall conclude with observing, that when this inscription was dug up, there were also two walls of stone discovered close by it, three foot thick each, one running north, the other east, and joining in an angle, as the North-street and St. Martin’s lane now turn, which, in all probability, were part of the foundations of the temple mentioned on the marble.
October 31. 1723.
To this judicious elucidation of the inscription I have nothing to add, but that it seems to me probable enough, that Pudens, mentioned therein to have given the ground upon which the temple was built, was that Aulus Pudens who married the famous British lady Claudia Rufina, celebrated for her wit, beauty and eloquence. There is room enough in the stone to suppose the letter A at least, as his prænomen was in that part which is lost. Moncæius de incunab. regiis eccles. christ. vet. Britann. thinks Claudia, mentioned by St. Paul,[139] 2 Tim. iv. 21. was daughter of the renowned Caratacus, converted to christianity by him, and married to this Pudens, a Roman Senator. But this may be judged rather too early, on account of the time of St. Paul’s death, and that wherein Martial lived, who wrote two elegant epigrams upon her; and we may with more likelihood conclude her to be the daughter of our Cogidunus, who lived to Tacitus his time, which was the same as Martial’s: and there is equal reason for the name of Claudia to be given her in honour of Claudius the emperor, as for the king her father taking the same upon himself, as appears in this inscription. Martial’s first epigram upon her is the 13th in his IV. L. thus,
Claudia, Rufe, meo nupsit peregrina Pudenti
Macte esto tædis o hymenæe tuis &c.
We may well imagine this was wrote in the reign of Domitian, by the first epigram in that book being in honour of that emperor’s birth day; and sixteen years at least must have passed between that and the time of St. Paul’s death, which happened the last year of Nero. The other epigram is the 54th of XI. L.
Claudia cœruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis
Edita, cur Latiæ pectora plebis habet?
Quale decus formæ! Romanam credere matres
Italides possunt, Atthides esse suam.
Dî bene, quod sancto peperit fæcunda marito