ian martyr whose blood was shed in this island, events that
have found a place in the early history of Britain occurred in the
immediate neighbourhood of the city we call St. Albans. Here in all
probability stood the _oppidum_ or stockaded stronghold of
Cassivellaunus, who was chosen to lead the tribes of South-Eastern
Britain when Julius Caesar in the year 54 B.C. made his second descent
on the island. We all know the story, how the Britons gave Caesar so
much trouble that, when at last Roman discipline had secured the
victory, he, demanding tribute and receiving hostages as guarantees for
its payment, left Britain and never cared to venture upon any fresh
invasion. We know that the Trinobantes were the first to sue for peace,
and, abandoning Cassivellaunus, left him to bear the brunt of Caesar's
attack upon his stronghold, how this was destroyed by Caesar, and how
Cassivellaunus also was obliged to make submission to the Romans.

Nearly a century passed before any Roman legionary again set foot on the
British shores; but when at last, in the days of Claudius, A.D. 42, the
Romans invaded the island, they came to conquer and occupy all except
the northern part of Britain. In the early days of their occupation a
walled town, which was soon raised to the rank of a _municipium_, was
built on the south-western side of the Ver, and from the name of the
river was called Verulamium or Verlamium. It soon became a populous
place, for when in A.D. 61 Boadicea, the Queen of the Iceni, stung by
the insults and injuries she and her daughters had received at the hands
of the Romans, raised her own and the neighbouring tribes to take
vengeance on their oppressors and

Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies;
Perish'd many a maid and matron, many a valorous legionary;
Fell the colony, city, and citadel, London, Verulam, Camulodune.

It is recorded that no less than seventy thousand fell in these three
places and the villages around them.

But her vengeance, sharp and sudden, was not allowed to pass unpunished
by the Romans, and Suetonius Paulinus, hurrying from North Wales, though
too late to save the three towns, utterly routed the forces of Boadicea
somewhere between London and Colchester.

After this Verulamium became once more a prosperous town, inhabited
partly by Romans, partly by Britons, who under Roman influence embraced
the civilization and adopted the customs of their conquerors. By whom
Chr