[Footnote 5: Perhaps somewhat to the north of the modern street. A portion is to be seen in the churchyard of St. Giles, Cripplegate.]
The vision of Geoffrey of Monmouth of a great British city, Troy Novant, founded by Brut, a descendant of Æneas, must be relegated to the limbo of myths. A more probable story is that one Belinus formed a port or haven on the site of the present Billingsgate, though it does not follow that he built a gate of wonderful structure, still less that he built over it--as the story goes--a prodigiously large tower. It should be noted that "gate" may not mean a gate at all in the modern sense of the word, but only an opening or an entrance, even as the "Yats" leading to the harbour of Yarmouth.[6] Mayhap this settlement constituted the headquarters of Cassivellaunus, which were taken and sacked by Julius Cæsar. At all events, Tacitus (61-117 A.D.) the first Roman author who mentions London by name, speaks of it as an important commercial centre. It had not, up to A.D. 61, been dignified by the name of a Colony. A temple, dedicated to Diana, appears to have stood on the site of our Eastminster, S. Paul's, and another, to Apollo, at Westminster. When Tacitus wrote, Verulamium and Camulodunum possessed mints, whilst London did not. The earliest Roman London must have been a comparatively small place, with a fort to command the passage of the Thames. Perhaps to the Romans are due the primitive embankments which were designed to restrain the vagaries of the river at the times of tide and flood. London Stone, built into another stone in Cannon Street, outside the wall of St. Swithin's Church, is generally considered to be a milliarium (to mark so many thousand paces) or central station from which to measure distances, but it may conceivably have had some more ancient and peculiar designation in connection with a public or sacred building. Old London lies 20 feet or so below the present street level, so that, when excavations are made for any purpose, Roman remains are frequently found and parts of the Roman wall uncovered.
[Footnote 6: In like manner we have Margate, Kingsgate, Westgate, Ramsgate, Sandgate, &c., indicating probably sites where a passage has been cut through the cliff by a stream or human agency.]