Fishbourne Roman Palace

[bunn]

Clearly the original residents did not call it that.   I'm guessing it doesn't have a documented original name, or at least I can't find one from hasty rummaging.

If you think it has a Latin name that I've missed, what's it called?   If you think it doesn't have a (known) Latin name, what might be a good name for someone in 197AD to use for it?

(The word Fishbourne sounds and looks Saxon. So It Will Not Do. It is Just Wrong. I know that Chichester is the rather magnificent Noviomagus Regnensium, but I need a separate name for the Palace.)

Comments

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Hah, nice. Certainly lots of houses in Pompeii etc are *now* known as things like the House of the Dolphins after the one of the mosaics (naturally I can't currently recall an actual Pompeiian example, but dolphins might work for Fishbourne) BUT that doesn't reflect any known naming tradition from Roman times. On the other hand, Nero's Golden House (Domus Aurea) was named as such at the time, so something along similar lines might work?

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Actually, probably the most notable thing about it was its size, so maybe just the Great Palace or something?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Following LoA's suggestion, I have tentatively settled on 'Domus Picta' to reference the painted walls: presumably those would have been a bit notable even when the place was first built and was a lot smaller and first needed a name...

At that point, perhaps people locally were less familiar with wallpaintings, but the name would still work at the end of the second century.

I wondered also about House of Fountains, as the gardens had some rather good ones apparently, which can't have been run of the mill in Britain.