London [antikvár]

THE CITY'S HISTORY The history of London and the history of England have always been closely linked, because ever since its foundation London has been considered the country's most important city. Both entered recorded history with the Roman conquest of Britain, which Julius Caesar in his "Gallic Wars" reported as being inhabited by people of Celtic origins, language and religion. Caesar made two military raids on Britain in 55 and 54 B.C., though their importance has been somewhat overemphasized. The Roman conquest proper came under the Emperor Claudius, partly because the British king Cunobelin (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare) and his sons were hostile to and organized raids against Roman Gaul across the English Channel. The army sent by' Claudius, numbering 40,000 men, advanced to the Thames and crossed it at the site of London, moving through Essex to capture Cunobelin's capital, Camu-lodunum, now Colchester. Even the Emperor Claudius himself appeared in England early in the invasion. It has been shown that at the time a settlement already existed on the left bank of the Thames, roughly in the area occupied today by the Cathedral of St Paul and the zone around Cornhill, the two being separated then by a small watercourse, which is now underground, the Walbrook Stream. During the Romans' long struggle to subdue the Britons, one well-remembered episode is the battle waged against the invaders by Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who in 60 A.D. sacked the young but already flourishing city of London. Tacitus, tnen-tioning these events in his Annals, talks of "Londi-nium", not yet elevated to the rank of a Roman colony but already renowned for the number of its markets and merchants. While still under Roman rule, Londi-nium had walls built around it, and these included six gateways, at Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Alders-gate, Newgate and Ludgate. Within the walls, in an area occupying more than 300 acres, the Forum, the Basilica and many shops and private houses were built . between the 2nd and 4th century A.D. But in 410 the Romans, harrassed by ever-increasing pressure at their frontiers from the barbarians, withdrew their legions and abandoned Britain, which was thus left open to conquest by migrating Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Little clear information has come down to us about Londinium in this period. From the Chronicle written by the Venerable Bede we know that the building of the first Cathedral of St Paul dates from 604. In 882 the Saxon king Alfred the Great defeated the Danes who had invaded the island and repaired London's defences. The effects on London of the Norman conquest, following the defeat of the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, were not only the introduction of Norman culture, economy and policies but also an intense new period of building activity.