disembarking at Rutupiæ (south coast of Britain, opposite to the present Boulogne), "marched to London to consult there about the war." Thus we get evidence of the City's metropolitan character at that date. Shortly after, Theodosius, in the reign of the Emperor Julian, "enters London victoriously." At which period, A.D. 368, it was proposed to change the name of the City to that of "Augusta."
It is true that remains of Roman magnificence are occasionally brought to light some ten feet or more beneath the present level of a city which has been successively sacked and more or less ruined by Saxon and Danish invaders, and has been a prey to subsequent conflagrations. The actual level of London streets is due to superposition of such accumulated ruins and debris, with repeated pavings, not to subsidence of the bank of the Thames which received the Roman and, probably, British beginnings of our metropolis. The Roman remains are found above the present level of the Thames at high water[1]'
What is testified of the geological relations of the river and its banks in two localities pretty far apart (Coway-Stakes and the Tower) near two thousand years ago may not improbably apply to one of its banks about twenty-five miles below London Bridge.
- ↑ The following are amongst the localities:—Leadenhall Street, Lime Street, Lombard Street, Ludgate Hill (base of), Queen Victoria Street, Strand Lane, and Walbrook. The banks of the "Wall Brook," a tributary to the Thames, seem to have been a favourite locality for Roman villas. The Tower of London stands on the ground which supported the Roman citadel. Antiquarian evidences of the above sites of earliest civilized Londoners are preserved in the Museum an Library of the Guildhall.
