'_Prince Edward._ I do not like the Tower of any place, Did Julius Cæsar build that place, my lord? _Buckingham._ He did, my gracious lord, begin that place, Which since succeeding ages have re-edified. _Prince Edward._ Is it upon record, or else reported Successively from age to age, he built it? _Buckingham._ Upon record, my gracious lord.' (_Richard III._, act iii. sc. i.) Of course, Julius Cæsar had nothing to do with the Tower, but the Roman remains that have been discovered on the site prove that this grand strategical position had been utilised from the early period of London's history. Mr. George T. Clark writes: 'When, having crossed the Thames, the Conqueror marched in person to complete the investment of London, he found that ancient city resting upon the left bank of its river, protected on its landward side by a strong wall, a Roman work, with mural towers and an exterior ditch.'[90] In 1777 some Roman coins were discovered, and a double wedge of silver, inscribed 'Ex officina Honorii,' which makes the conjecture probable, that at this early period, as in later times, the buildings on the site of the Tower were used as a mint. William the Conqueror was crowned in 1066, and Mr. Clark says that 'it was from Barking, immediately after the ceremony, that he directed the actual commencement of the works, which were no doubt at first a deep ditch and strong palisade; for the keep, probably the earliest work in masonry, appears not to have been begun till twelve or fourteen years later.'[91] The keep (known later as the White Tower) was built by Gundulf, a monk of Bec, who in 1077, soon after his arrival in England, was consecrated Bishop of Rochester. We learn from the _Textus Roffensis_, written about the year 1143, that Gundulf, while employed upon the Tower, lodged at the house of Eadmer Anhoende, a burgess of London, but he is not supposed to have commenced the building until 1078. A great work such as the construction of the Tower of London took many years to complete. It is supposed that although the Conqueror, to a great extent, planned the fortress, he did not build more than the inner ward. The existing 'curtain' of the inner ward (9 to 12 feet thick, and from 39 to 40 feet high) is thought by Clark to be the work of William Rufus.