r military no less than for commercial purposes--and the Roman occupation
of Britain was mainly a military one--good roads were essential, and these
the Romans excelled in making. It is remarkable that in the Itinerary of
Antoninus Pius, London figures either as the starting point or as the
terminus to nearly one-half of the routes described in the portion
relating to Britain.(8) The name of one and only one of these Roman
highways survives in the city at the present day, and then only in its
Teutonic and not Roman form--the Watling or "Wathelinga" Street, the street
which led from Kent through the city of London to Chester and York, and
thence by two branches to Carlisle and the neighbourhood of Newcastle. The
Ermin Street, another Roman road with a Teutonic name, led from London to
Lincoln, with branches to Doncaster and York, but its name no longer
survives in the city.

(M6)

The same reasons that led the Romans to establish good roads throughout
the country led them also to erect a bridge across the river from London
to Southwark, and in later years to enclose the city with a wall. To the
building of the bridge, which probably took place in the early years of
the Roman occupation, London owed much of its youthful prosperity;
whenever any accident happened to the bridge the damage was always
promptly repaired. Not so with the walls of the city. They were allowed to
fall into decay until the prudence and military genius of the great Alfred
caused them to be repaired as a bulwark against the onslaughts of the
Danes.

(M7)

"Britain had been occupied by the Romans, but had not become Roman,"(9)
and the scanty and superficial civilization which the Britons had received
from the Roman occupation was obliterated by the calamities which followed
the northern invasions of the fifth and following centuries. A Christian
city, as Augusta had probably been, not a vestige of a Christian church of
the Roman period has come down to us.(10) It quickly lapsed into paganism.
Its very name disappears, and with it the names of its streets, its
traditions and its customs. Its inhabitants forgot the Latin tongue, and
the memories of 400 years were clean wiped out. There remains to us of the
present day nothing to remind us of London under the Roman empire, save a
fragment of a wall, a milestone, a few coins and statuettes, and some
articles of personal ornament or domestic use--little more in fact, than
what may be seen in the Museum