Ancient London

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1. Prehistoric London

Statue of Gog (Guildhall of London)

According to the "Historia Regum Britanniae" by Geoffrey of Monmouth London was founded by Brutus of Troy, who defeated the giants Gog and Magog.

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric in the medieval times, who is known as one of the first historians in Britannia.

He wrote the "Historia Regum Britanniae" around 1136 in Latin.

It spans a timeframe of 2000 years, and begins with the legend of Troy, and reaches until the Anglosaxon conquest in the 7th century.                                                                  

Of course this theses about the foundation of London are not historically reliable, but the reality happened in another way:

The history of London began in 880 BC, when the Celts settled on the British Islands.

Before London was actually founded, there existed some celtic villages in the area of modern London, along the Thames.

However there are no  hints, that there was a village on the exact location of today's London before the later roman settlement.

2. The roman attempts to conquer Britannia

55 B.C.  Julius Caesar arrived with approximately 10,000 soldiers, at the south-eastern shores of Britannia.

But short time after arriving, he withdrew because his force was not strong enough, and there was a spring tide, which exhausted the troops.

One year later Caesar started another attempt, to invade Britannia, and conquer it.

Roman Legionary

This time, Caesar send more soldiers than the first time, but they were not able to hold their forts in Britannia.

Additionally, there were uprisings against the romans in Gallia, so Caesar needed his legionaries there.

For the next 98 years, there were no roman attempts, to conquer Britannia, until 43 A.D :

In that year, Claudius, the current roman emperor, started a new assault on Britannia, because he wanted to proove his military abilities, and gain glory and honor.

Early settlement of Londinium

Tiberius Claudius Ceasar Augustus Germanicus  was born in Lugdunum, (August 1st, 10 B.C.) and died even there (October 13th, 54 A.D.). He was the first roman emperor, who was born outside of Italia.

Claudius send 20,000 legionaries, and nearly the same number of auxiliary troops, and the leading general Plautius also brought elephants from africa to defeat the Britons.

Plautius succeeded, and Londinium was founded a few years after the conquest, approximately around 47 A.D. Later on, Londinum became one o the most important roman settlements in Britannia.

3. Boudicca Rebellion

Process of the Boudicca uprising

From 60-61 A.D. two celtic tribes, under the leadership of Boudicca, revolted against the roman occupation.

Boudicca was the queen of the "Iceni" tribe. The reason of Boudiccas hate was, that the romans didn't want to have a woman as a tribe leader, so they whiped her in public and raped her virgin daughters.

She gathered an army of 80,000 people, including women and children, to drive the romans out of Britannia.

Her army burned three major roman settlements, which were  Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium.

After that decent result, she moved to the north-west, where she was defeated by a roman legion, which was coming from the north.

Finally the rebellion was crushed, and the roman rulership was reestablished and Londinium, Camulodunum and Verulamium were built up again.

4. Rise and Fall of Londinium

Londinium in its heyday

After the romans defeated Boudicca, they built up Londinium again. It became the capital of Roman Britannia.

They constructed many new buildings around the year 120 A.D. including a big Forum, a Palace some temples and thermal baths.

The Romans also built a wall around the settlement, which was 3.2 kilometres long, and had six gates.

However there was no wall on the coast of the Thames river.

In the south of the Thames there was another settlement, which was not as important as Londinium, but later was united with it to form London.

The situation became worrisome because several barbarian tribes attacked the city, and it did not prosper as before, just as all of the Roman Empire.

Roman Britannia 200 A.D

For example Constatius I avoided a looting of Londinium by the Franks. Despite this fact, the city became poorer and was not successfull anymore.

In the fourth century the Saxons and Franks attacked Britannia often, so the romans had to fight often for their survival.

As a result the it was too expensive for the Romans to stay in Britannia, so in 420 A.D. they withdrew from the British Isles.



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By Johannes van der Vegt & Toni Juhl