Stranica 65 [65]
ORIGIN OF THE CITY 43
:
invasions of the northern tribes, by the outbreak of local discontent,
and by the rise and fall of pretenders to imperial power. One of
these was "a citizen of the island," as we are told by Orosius, named
Gratian, who was elected emperor in 407, and speedily slain. He may
have been a citizen of Augusta, or of some other town; we are not
told; and Augusta may have had citizens, or burghers, or mwzwnzicifes,
like other Roman cities. We know nothing for certain one way or
other; and all we do
know is that London
was a Roman city for
about half a century of
the utmost disorder.
For another half-cen¬
tury we are entirely in
the dark as to the fate
of London, until in 457
we find the Britons,
defeated by the heathen
Saxons, retreating
upon London. 1hence¬
forward all is blank,
till in 604, a century and a half later, we find it in the hands of the
King of the East Saxons, a place evidently of no great importance,
as may be gathered from the ecclesiastical annals of Beda, with ruined
walls, a prey for centuries to all invaders, until in 839 it was finally
destroyed, burnt and deserted by the Danes, and lay desolate for
thirty years.
In the face of facts like these it is strange indeed to find a strong
body of modern London historians who would have us believe that
the Romans founded a municipality in Augusta, that this municipality