An inscription found in North Street, and
now preserved at Goodwood, recording the dedication of a Temple by the
College of Smiths to Neptune and Minerva, would seem to refer to that
Claudia and that Pudens mentioned by St Paul, and thus to connect them
with Regnum. However that may be, we know that it with the rest of Britain
must have been a Christian city long before the failure of the Roman
administration.
With that failure and the final departure of the Legions, Regnum fell
on evil days. Its position as the key to those harbours which had given
it its importance now exposed it to the first raids of the pirates.
These barbarians, according to legend, were Ella and his three sons,
one of whom, Cissa, is said to have given Chichester her name--Cissa's
camp, Cissa's Ceaster. Of Chichester's story during the Dark Ages we
know as little as we know of most of the cities of England, but that it
was destroyed utterly, as has been asserted, common sense refuses to
allow us to believe. It certainly continued to exist, in barbarous
fashion perhaps, but still to live, till with the conversion of the
English it began to take on a new life, and with the Conquest was
finally established as the seat of the Bishop.
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