In the Chichester inscription, the first two letters of the king's native name, given in the
genitive case, are missing. It is usually reconstructed as "Cogidubnus", following the majority of manuscripts of Tacitus, but some, including Charles E Murgia, believe "Togidubnus" is the more linguistically correct form as a Celtic name. The Roman names "
Tiberius Claudius" indicate that he was given
Roman citizenship by the
emperor Claudius, or possibly by
Nero, and probably not, as has been suggested, that he was related to
Claudia Rufina, a woman of British descent whose marriage to
Aulus Pudens in
Rome in the 90s is mentioned by the poet
Martial. He is nearly contemporary with
Togodumnus, a prince of the
Catuvellauni tribe mentioned by
Dio Cassius, and the similarity of their names has led some, including Dr Miles Russell of
Bournemouth University and the distinguished
archaeologist Professor
Barry Cunliffe of
Oxford University, to suggest that they may be one and the same, thereby making the Fishbourne king a son of
Cunobelinus and brother of
Caratacus. However the sources do not appear to support this: according to Dio, Togodumnus was killed in 43 in the early stages of the
Roman conquest of Britain, whilst Tacitus says that Cogidubnus remained loyal to Rome as a client king into the later part of the 1st century. It is of course not unusual for two people to have similar names (cf.
Dubnovellaunus). As the Chichester inscription supports Tacitus, Cunliffe's interpretation would appear to imply an error in Dio's
Roman History or in its transmission, and some, including John Hind, have argued that Dio misinterpreted his sources as reading that Togodumnus had died when he had merely been defeated. ==Villa at Fishbourne==