After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, West Sussex was part of a ‘client-kingdom’ of the Romans, ruled by a Briton called Togidubnus, with a major city at Noviomagus (Chichester). The Roman palace at Fishbourne was built during this period, and may have been the residence of Togidubnus. Following his death in around AD85, the area became part of the Roman province of Britannia and remained so until the decline of the Roman Empire in the early fifth Century.
During the Roman period, the south Sussex coast was quite densely inhabited, and Roman settlements have been excavated at Arundel, Littlehampton and Angmering. Although no major Roman settlement is known to have existed on Site 6, several ditches and pits have been found during the evaluation and watching brief, and finding more evidence from the Roman period is one of the major goals of the project.