sly conjectures that the
Greek writer took his information from Phoenician works descriptive of
Britain, written before even the invasion of Caesar. Theodosius, a
general of the Emperor Valentinian, who saved London from gathered
hordes of Scots, Picts, Franks, and Saxons, is supposed to have repaired
the walls of London, which had been first built by the Emperor
Constantine early in the fourth century. In the reign of Theodosius,
London, now called Augusta, became one of the chief, if not the chief,
of the seventy Roman cities in Britain. In the famous "Itinerary" of
Antoninus (about the end of the third century) London stands as the goal
or starting-point of seven out of the fifteen great central Roman roads
in England. Camden considers the London Stone, now enshrined in the
south wall of St. Swithin's Church, Cannon Street, to have been the
central milestone of Roman England, from which all the chief roads
radiated, and by which the distances were reckoned. Wren supposed that
Watling Street, of which Cannon Street is a part, was the High Street of
Roman London. Another street ran west along Holborn from Cheapside, and
from Cheapside probably north. A northern road ran by Aldgate, and
probably Bishopsgate. The road from Dover came either over a bridge near
the site of the present London Bridge, or higher up at Dowgate, from
Stoney Street on the Surrey side.

Early Roman London was scarcely larger than Hyde Park. Mr. Roach Smith,
the best of all authorities on the subject, gives its length from the
Tower to Ludgate, east and west, at about a mile; and north and south,
that is from London Wall to the Thames, at about half a mile. The
earliest Roman city was even smaller, for Roman sepulchres have been
found in Bow Lane, Moorgate Street, Bishopsgate Within, which must at
that time have been beyond the walls. The Roman cemeteries of
Smithfield, St. Paul's, Whitechapel, the Minories, and Spitalfields, are
of later dates, and are in all cases beyond the old line of
circumvallation, according to the sound Roman custom fixed by law. The
earlier London Mr. Roach Smith describes as an irregular space, the five
main gates corresponding with Bridgegate, Ludgate, Bishopsgate,
Aldersgate, and Aldgate. The north wall followed for some part the
course of Cornhill and Leadenhall Street; the eastern Billiter Street
and Mark Lane; the southern Thames Street; and the western the east side
of Walbrook. Of the larger Roman wall, there were