The Towns of Roman Britain

by J. O. Bevan

⁴ There is to be seen in situ beneath the Great Central Station here a beautiful and almost perfect tesselated pavement.

LINCOLN.—Llyn—a deep pool, and Colonia. The Britons called it Lind-coit. The name Linn-dun, of which Lindum is the Romanised version, means The hill-fort of the pool.

The territory hereabouts was first settled by Belgae; who, however, at the time of Cæsar's invasion, had become a mixed race with the real Britons. The country was conquered by the Romans about 70 A.D., and formed part of the province of Flavia Caesariensis. The tribe which occupied Lincolnshire were the Coritani, who had Lindum and Ratae for their tribal centres. In this territory remains of British camps are found at Barrow, Folkingham, Ingoldsby, Revesby, and Wells. Also traces of Roman camps are discoverable at Alkborough, Caistor, Gainsborough, Gadney Hill, near Holbeach, Honington, near Grantham, South Ormsby, and Yarborough. The Roman roads in this neighbourhood are nearly perfect. There is Ermine Street on the eastern side of the Cliff Hills and the Fosse Way, running S.W. from Lincoln. There is a famous arch—the Newport—at Lincoln. It is one of the most perfect specimens of Roman architecture in England. It is sunk fully eleven feet below the present level of the street, and has two smaller arches on each side, the one to the west being concealed by an adjoining house. The Ermine Street passes through this gate, running north from it for eleven or twelve miles as straight as an arrow. Many Roman coins and ornaments have been found in the immediate vicinity of this gate. In the Cloister garden of the Cathedral are preserved a tesselated pavement and the sepulchral slab of a Roman warrior.

LONDON.—Londonum, Londinium, the Augusta of the Romans. Llyn Din—the Black Llyn or Lake, or perhaps from Celto-Saxon dun, or don—a hill fort. This fort may have been situated where abouts St. Paul's now stands, or, in a more extended form, it may have been constituted by Tower Hill, Cornhill, and Ludgate Hill; bounded thus by the Thames on the South, the Fleet on the West, and the Fen of Moorfields and Finsbury (afterwards by Hounsditch and the Tower) on the East.

It must be premised that the course of the Thames, the containing bounds, the depth of the stream, the character of the rivulets—such as the Lea, the Fleet, Wall-brook, West-Bourne, Tye-Bourne—presented marked differences in early historic days from the appearance they show to-day. The sites north and south of the line where London Bridge now stands constituted firm ground, with a tendency to an elevation in the north. These facts determined the position of the British settlement. At that part of the river the Britons had, if not a ford, at least a ferry, and finally a rough bridge—perhaps of coracles or boats—the progenitor of the noble structure now existing. The ferry went from what is now Dowgate to a similar opening still existing to the west of St. Saviour's, Southwark.

A British settlement of an early date would not now be thought to deserve the name of town. No less an authority than Julius Cæsar tells us that it was nothing more than a thick wood, fortified with a ditch and rampart, to serve as a place of retreat from the inroads of enemies. At that time, we may, therefore, imagine a clearing carved out of the forest, extending probably from the site of St. Paul's Cathedral to that of the Bank of England, the dwellings of the Britons being spread about the higher ground looking down upon the river, including Tower Hill. At the time of the revolt of the Iceni, the Roman governor, Paulinus Suetonius, being unable to make a stand, abandoned London to Boadicea, who entirely destroyed the city, after having massacred the inhabitants. We find London holding an important place in the Antonine Itinerary, Londinium being a starting point for nearly half the routes described in the portion devoted to Britain. Traditionally, Constantine the Great walled the city, at the request of his mother Helena, who is said to have been a native of Britain. Probably we should place the northern wall somewhere along the course of Cornhill⁵ and Leadenhall Street; the eastern in the direction of Billiter Street and Mark Lane; the southern in the line of Upper and Lower Thames Streets; the western on the S.W. side of Walbrook. About the centre of each side might be placed the four main gates, corresponding with Bridge Gate, Ludgate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate.

⁵ Perhaps somewhat to the north of the modern street. A portion is to be seen in the churchyard of St. Giles, Cripplegate.

The vision of Geoffrey of Monmouth of a great British city, Troy Novant, founded by Brut, a descendant of Æneas, must be relegated to the limbo of myths. A more probable story is that one Belinus formed a port or haven on the site of the present Billingsgate, though it does not follow that he built a gate of wonderful structure, still less that he built over it—as the story goes—a prodigiously large tower. It should be noted that "gate" may not mean a gate at all in the modern sense of the word, but only an opening or an entrance, even as the "Yats" leading to the harbour of Yarmouth.⁶ Mayhap this settlement constituted the headquarters of Cassivellaunus, which were taken and sacked by Julius Cæsar. At all events, Tacitus (61-117 A.D.) the first Roman author who mentions London by name, speaks of it as an important commercial centre. It had not, up to A.D. 61, been dignified by the name of a Colony. A temple, dedicated to Diana, appears to have stood on the site of our Eastminster, S. Paul's, and another, to Apollo, at Westminster. When Tacitus wrote, Verulamium and Camulodunum possessed mints, whilst London did not. The earliest Roman London must have been a comparatively small place, with a fort to command the passage of the Thames. Perhaps to the Romans are due the primitive embankments which were designed to restrain the vagaries of the river at the times of tide and flood. London Stone, built into another stone in Cannon Street, outside the wall of St. Swithin's Church, is generally considered to be a milliarium (to mark so many thousand paces) or central station from which to measure distances, but it may conceivably have had some more ancient and peculiar designation in connection with a public or sacred building. Old London lies 20 feet or so below the present street level, so that, when excavations are made for any purpose, Roman remains are frequently found and parts of the Roman wall uncovered.