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Extrait de la carte Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain

* A.L.F Rivet & Colin Smith : The Place-names of Roman Britain, p 445-446  : 

- Ptolémée, II,3,13 : Regnoi ( = Regni); variantes Rignoi ( = Rigni), Reginoi ( = Regini); 

- Itinéraire d'Antonin, 477₁₀ (Iter VII) : A REGNO LUNDINIO

- Ravenna, 106₂₀ : NAVIMAGO REGENTIUM

" (The name is not found in CIL VII,45, now RIB 152, as was at one time conjectured).

There has been much discussion of the interpretation of these sources, and several confusions. One was caused by association of AI's form with the regnum ('kingdom') of Cogidubnus allowed ti him after the Conquest, and with the title of rex granted to him (RIB 91 and Tacitus, Agricola 14). Another was produced by Heverfield's suggestion that in Ravenna the tribal name should be emended to Reg[n]ensium (gen. pl.), nominative *Regnenses 'people of the Kingdom', a suggestion adopted by R&C in their 1949 study, and by others. Further, AI's form was often cited as Regnum (a nominative deduced from AI's seeming ablative Regno), whereas it is best to adopt Holder's suggestion (II 1112) that the entry should be emended to a Regnis.

DERIVATION. We go therefore to Ptolemy's forms in the hope of enlightenment. Jackson in Britannia, I (1970), 78-79 (also JRS, XXXVIII (1948), 58) takes the form 'Reginoi (= Regini), even though this is found in only one inferior MS, as closest to the truth; and regards the forms with -gn- as assimilations to Latin words having regn-. This is surely right, since it enables Jackson to postulate as the British ethnie name *Regini ' proud ones, stiff ones' (for the semantic aspect, compare Belgae), the plural of *regin- 'stiff, stark' (Old Irish rigin, etc.), from a base *reg- 'to stretch, stiffen', A number of personal names such as Rigina, Rigetius, are listed by Ellis Evans in GPN 373; they include [R]egin [i] of CIIC 359 and the Old Welsh name Regin (later Rein; see LHEB 445).

AI's form as emended, a Regnis, is therefore a latinised version of the tribal name, with, again, assimilation to Latin -gn-. Ravenna's entry requires emendation to Reginorum or perhaps Regenorum. In all this, it should be noted that the assimilations in both Ptolemy and AI to Latin regn- were probably genuine enough in local usage (i.e. not the work of Continental scribes at later date), being assisted by the existence of Cogidubnus's regnum for a long time after A.D 43.

For the use of a tribal name as an indication in an itinerary, compare Icinos (see ICENI).

IDENTIFICATION. A people of southern Britain with their capital at Noviomagus, Chichester; Ptolemy attributes no other place to them. RIB 91 shows that they were indeed one of the quaedam civitates Cogidumno regi donatae (Agricola 14), but the plural implies others and the identity of the others is disputed. The name adopted here implies their previous existence as a tribe, but the distribution of pre-Roman coins of the house of Commius suggests that they may have been clients of the Atrebates and gives no clue to their extent".

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* A.L.F Rivet & Colin Smith : The Place-names of Roman Britain. B.T Batsford Ltd. London. 1979-1982

* JC Even : Histoire Nationale des Bretons, de l'Aube des Temps à la fin du Vè siècle après J.C. Lannion. 1996

(publication Internet : http://marikavel.org/histoire/histoire-titre.htm

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