Oldal 53 [53]
ORIGIN OF THE CITY 31
be there? It is a curious fact that, in spite of the tons of paper
which have been covered with the records of discoveries and specu¬
lations about Roman London, we cannot answer these guestions any
more than could our ancestors of the twelfth century. I have put
down the little that is known in my other books, and it will be
sufficient here if I
the ascertained
nological —— order.
made a fort in 43.
later, namely in 61,
that Londinium,
place, was of no
ance, and aban¬
rebels under Boa¬
I infer that the
been built in 61.
Romans made a
a strong fort or
simply summarise
facts in brief chro¬
Aulus Plautius
Eighteen years
Suetonius found
though a large
strategical import¬
doned it to the
dicea. From this
bridge had _ not
A little later the
bridge, and placed
pretorium at the
northern end to protect it. ‘ Lon¬
don Stone still
ately, the site of
marks, approxim¬
the western en¬
trance. More than two centuries
passed during which the suburbs round the fort had grown very
large, and in 296 they were plundered by the mercenaries of one of
the numerous pretenders to the purple. It is evident therefore
that the impregnable wall had not yet been built. Constantine
was in Britain when he became Emperor, and soon afterwards the
Roman Empire adopted Christianity. In 350 there was still no wall,
though the houses and streets about the fort were more numerous than
ever. In 369 we first hear of the existence of a wall. It was built