Group 10: Sussex

Jumping south-eastwards from Calleua, the Cosmographer begins again at *Anderito (a better form than the more familiar Anderida: Rivet & Smith 1979, 251), Pevensey, perhaps isolated on a promontory and therefore catching his eye. The remaining names are obscure, though. *Nouia is possibly to be connected with the Καινοσ λιμην (i.e. Nouus Portus) of Ptolemy (Geography II.3,3). The form given here suggests that Ptolemy (or his source) has translated a British name similar to Nouius, the River Nith, on the wrong assumption that it was the Latin nouus, ‘new’; if so, the name perhaps refers to the River Ouse or a site on it. On the basis of Ptolemy’s mention of a port, we may suggest that it was near the original mouth of the river at Seaford. Rivet and Smith (1979, 427) prefer to see Nuba as a river-name, anticipating the Novia of 108₄₀. However, I have already shown that the Cosmographer does not repeat river-names in this way; if they were written in the sea, they appear in the list of river-names only, whereas if they were written in an inland position, they occur only in the place-name list.

The name <Mutuantonis> was recognised by Richmond and Crawford (1949, 41) as a conflation, and this is easier than reading *Flu Trisantonis as Rivet and Smith (1979, 476) have tried. The suggestion of the earlier writers that the original read *Mutuanna, *Trisantonis has much to recommend it. The latter name must be a site on the River Arun (Ptolemy’s Τρισαντωνος ποταμου εκβολαι, II.3,3; Ekwall 1928, 416), perhaps Hardham. It is unlikely to be the river itself, as this is named at 108₄₀ in the river list as the garbled <Raxtom…>; in this case the former name may be applied to the settlement at Hassocks.