Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/365

 than they were a thousand years afterwards at the period of the Norman Conquest. London, or Londinium, is described by Tacitus as a place then of considerable trade, though not dignified with the name of a colony, and as the chief residence of the merchants. Clausentum (old Southampton), and Rutupi (Richborough) were commercial ports of some importance, and were occupied by traders who dealt largely with those of Gaul, and extended their business even to Rome itself.

Traders from the neighbouring coasts, but more especially from that section of the Germans known by the name of Belgæ, who centuries before had settled on the opposite coast between the Rhine and the Seine, were, in many cases, the intermediate dealers between the Britons and the continental tribes. The whole country was then, as had no doubt been the case for some time previous to the invasion, divided into several small states presided over by chiefs, who are dignified by historians with the title of king. Ptolemy, in his geography, mentions various towns in different parts of Britain of sufficient importance in his time to be recorded, all tending to show that a state of civilization then prevailed throughout the island, and that barbarism and savage life were the exception rather than the rule.

Amongst the towns noticed by Ptolemy may be mentioned Isca Damnoniorum (Exeter); Durnium (Dorchester); Venta Belgarum (Winchester), which