Londinium was founded ca. AD 47–50 as a planned commercial settlement on the north bank of the Thames at the lowest practical bridging point, occupying the twin hills now covered by the City of London. Destroyed in the Boudican revolt of AD 60/61, it was rebuilt on a grander scale, reaching perhaps 30,000 inhabitants by the early 2nd century, and was later renamed Augusta in the late 4th century. It functioned as a port, mercantile hub, and from the early 2nd century the provincial capital of Britannia.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Londinium replaced Camulodunum as the seat of the procurator and probably the governor, making it the administrative and fiscal centre of Roman Britain; after the Diocletianic reforms it became capital of Britannia Superior and later Maxima Caesariensis, and hosted a mint. Its forum-basilica was the largest north of the Alps, and its riverside quays handled the bulk of cross-Channel trade in oil, wine, samian, and grain.
Extensive rescue excavation since the 1970s (notably MOLA work at sites such as No. 1 Poultry, the Bloomberg site, and Leadenhall) has revealed the forum, the governor's palace at Cannon Street, an amphitheatre under the Guildhall, the Walbrook mithraeum, the 2nd–3rd century landward and riverside walls, the Cripplegate fort
Londinium was founded ca. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Londinium/Augusta is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including London Mithraeum (0.2 km), Roman governor's palace (site of) (0.3 km), Roman amphitheater at Guildhall, London (0.4 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Londinium/Augusta