Londinium

• 1. Founding And Early Growth

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  A timber drain discovered at Number 1 Poultry dates to the year 47 AD, marking the earliest securely-dated structure in what would become Londinium. This small settlement occupied an area roughly equivalent to present-day Hyde Park, situated on a ford across the River Thames that allowed ships to pass while remaining shallow enough for crossing. Archaeologists note that no pre-Roman settlements or significant domestic refuse have been found in this specific location, suggesting the town was largely a product of private enterprise rather than an existing native oppidum. The Romans established a bridgehead here shortly after their invasion began, creating a road nexus that connected Kentish ports like Rutupiae and Dubris to the interior provinces. By the mid-1st century, the city had grown into a major port with warehouses built between 49 and 52 AD, serving as a commercial hub for trade between Britain and the continent.

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• 2. Boudicas Rebellion And Destruction

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  In the year 60 or 61 AD, the king of the Iceni died, leaving his wealth divided between Rome and his two daughters under a will that Roman law forbade female inheritance. When his wife Boudica objected to the confiscation of property by provincial procurators, Roman forces flogged her and enslaved her daughters' kinsmen. She then led a revolt that overwhelmed two hundred ill-equipped men sent to defend Camulodunum, forcing the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus to abandon Londinium. Tacitus records that Paulinus hesitated before deciding to sacrifice the single city to save the province, allowing inhabitants to flee while those who stayed were slaughtered. Excavations have revealed extensive evidence of destruction by fire in the form of a layer of red ash beneath the city at this date, confirming the historical accounts of total razing. The 9th Legion under Quintus Petillius Cerialis was ambushed and annihilated during the uprising, and the city lay in ruins until reconstruction began shortly after the rebellion's defeat.

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• 3. Peak Prosperity And Public Works

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  Emperor Hadrian visited Londinium in the year 122, prompting the construction of impressive public buildings including an expanded forum that measured roughly 150 meters square. This three-storey basilica became the largest structure north of the Alps, with a marketplace rivaling those found in Rome itself. By around 140 AD, the population had recovered to between 45,000 and 60,000 people, living in stone houses equipped with piped water and sophisticated drainage systems. A large building discovered near Cannon Street Station dates to this era and is assumed to have been the governor's palace, featuring gardens, pools, and mosaic floors. The amphitheatre constructed in 70 AD stood at Guildhall, while bathhouses like the one at Huggin Hill remained in use until demolition around the year 200. These structures demonstrated that Londinium had replaced Camulodunum as the provincial capital, despite no surviving source explicitly stating it held that title.

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• 4. Defensive Fortifications And Decline

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  Some time between 190 and 225 AD, Roman engineers built the London Wall, a defensive ragstone structure approximately 3 kilometers long and 6 meters high. This massive project included four main gates: Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Newgate, and Ludgate, along with smaller pedestrian posterns like the one by Tower Hill. The wall initially left the riverbank undefended, a flaw corrected in the 3rd century when raiding by Saxon pirates led to the construction of a riverside wall running along present-day Thames Street. Despite these fortifications, the city shrank in both size and population during the second half of the 2nd century, possibly due to the Antonine Plague which swept Western Europe between 165 and 190. Archaeologists have found that much of the city after this date was covered in dark earth, a by-product of household waste and manure that accumulated relatively undisturbed for centuries.

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• 5. Religious Life And Cultural Diversity

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  The London Mithraeum rediscovered in 1954 dates from around 240 AD, erected on the east bank at the head of navigation on the River Walbrook about 70 meters from the Thames. An inscription found on a third-century stone altar recorded the rebuilding of a temple of Isis by the governor Marcus Martiannius Pulcher, reflecting the Egyptian goddess's influence over seafarers. Genetic studies of human remains from Roman cemeteries reveal that people born with North African ancestry were not unusual or atypical results for Londinium. A 2016 study of isotope analysis from 20 bodies suggests that at least 12 had grown up locally while four were immigrants, confirming the city's status as an ethnically diverse community. The average height for male Londoners measured roughly 1.73 meters, while female Londoners averaged 1.63 meters, indicating a population drawn from across continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

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• 6. Archaeological Discovery And Excavation History

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  The first extensive archaeological review of the Roman city occurred in the 17th century after the Great Fire of 1666, when Christopher Wren's renovation of St Paul's found no evidence supporting claims of a Roman temple to Diana. In the 1860s, excavations by Augustus Pitt Rivers uncovered a large number of human skulls and almost no other bones in the bed of the Walbrook, recalling passages in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical history about ritual decapitations thrown into the river. The London Mithraeum was discovered in 1954 during excavations thought to be of an early church, later relocated to permit building over its original site before being returned under the Bloomberg building. Archaeologists began intensive excavation of waterfront sites in the 1970s, with further work following the deregulation of the London Stock Exchange in 1986 which led to extensive new construction in the financial district.

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