Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical SketchDimock, Arthur
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch
Dimock, Arthur
St. Paul's Cathedral (London, England)
=Romano-British.=--Tacitus, in his characteristically concise style,
introduces London into authentic history during the apostolic era and
the reign of Nero.[1] Suetonius Paulinus, governor of Britain, came in
hot haste from Mona, suspending the slaughter of the Druid leaders in
this their last fastness, to restore the Roman arms. For Boadicea,
Queen of the Iceni, outraged at the treatment of herself and her two
daughters, had, like a second Deborah, raised a popular uprising
against the foreign invaders. Colchester fallen, the ninth legion
annihilated, nothing remained but to abandon the thriving mart of
London itself for a time to the fury of the natives, before the Roman
sway could be restored.
The ground rising both from the northern bank of the Thames, some
three hundred yards distant, and from the eastern bank of the Fleet
beck, forms an eminence. Here, to protect the riverside mart below, on
or about the site of the present churchyard the Romans formed a camp;
and looking down what is now Ludgate Hill, the soldiers could see the
Fleet ebbing and flowing with each receding and advancing tide.
Northwards the country afforded a hunting ground, and a temple to
Diana Venatrix would naturally be erected. During the excavations for
New St. Paul's, Roman urns were found as well as British graves; and
in 1830, a stone altar with an image of Diana was likewise found while
digging for the foundations of Goldsmith's Hall in Foster Lane. On
such incomplete evidence rests the accuracy of the story or tradition
that a temple of Diana occupied part of the site of the present
Cathedral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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