Fishbourne Roman Palace Built

c. 75 AD

Fishbourne Roman Palace was constructed around 75 AD, making it the largest known Roman residential building in Britain. The palace was built on a grand scale, with four wings arranged around a formal garden, a total of over 100 rooms, and some of the finest mosaic floors found anywhere in the province. The most celebrated mosaic depicts a winged boy riding a dolphin. The palace was almost certainly the residence of Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus, a British king who had allied with Rome during the invasion of 43 AD and who governed the local Regni tribe as a client ruler. The scale of the building is comparable to imperial palaces in Italy, which suggests that Togidubnus had both the wealth and the political connections to commission a structure of exceptional ambition. The palace was rebuilt and modified several times, with a major fire around 270 AD destroying much of the building. It was not rebuilt after this fire, and the site gradually fell into ruin and was covered by soil and later agricultural use. The palace was rediscovered in 1960 when a workman digging a water main trench struck the mosaic floors. Excavations led by Barry Cunliffe from 1961 revealed the full extent of the building. A museum now covers the north wing, and the formal Roman garden has been replanted based on archaeological evidence of the original planting beds.