"settlements were here under the lee of the high cliffs and rocks of our shores."
ROMAN HASTINGS.
The Roman invasion of Britain is said to have commenced with the landing of Caesar in 55 B.C.
The late Mr. T. H. Cole, M.A., in his Antiquities of Hastings, asserts that "some of the ships that fought Caesar hailed from our own old port, for Caesar tells us the Britons used iron, and that iron was found near the coast. Now it is only in the cliffs and valleys adjoining Hastings that it is to be met with, and on either side of our Priory valley the ancient ironworks can yet be pointed out. (See Cole's Map.) This harbour, then, in particular, would be in great demand for transporting this metal to the other parts of Britain and to Gaul. It would be of necessity a great emporium, where cargoes of iron would be exchanged for the copper which Caesar tells us was imported. The ships that frequented this haven must have formed no inconsiderable part of the British armament that went to the aid of their allies in Gaul. These allies, when hard pressed, took refuge in towns placed at the extremities of the lofty cliffs overlooking the harbours in which their ships found shelter." There is evidence of an old cemetery (13th century) on the East Hill; and near the open triangular space the late Mr. Thos. Ross discovered a burial place. Bodies were found lying in charcoal, and beside each what appeared to be iron rivets and large-headed nails. The iron rivets are characteristic of the iron region. But the existence of a Roman town therein is mere conjecture. Then the author quotes Professor Airy, late Astronomer Royal, according to whom "it was from our Hastings hills that the Triumvir saw the native forces in armed array. Be that as it may, Caesar describes the place he reached as a narrow inlet of the sea, shut in by heights, from which weapons could be discharged upon the shore beneath, a description which would tally well with our old haven. "Mr. Cole quotes other authorities indicating that the town was of Roman origin, including Mr. Bradley's Ptolemaic Measurements of the South Coast Journ. Brit. Arch. A. Vol. 37, part 3, p. 227.- "In the list of places on the South Coast of Britain occur the Portus Novus, one degree west of the Promontory of Kent, which may be identified either with the North or South Foreland," and Mr. Bradley observes, "after due allowance for the difference between Ptolemy's degrees of longitude and our own this indicates the precise longitude of Hastings. Now it is well known that Hastings did once possess an excellent harbour. The fact that this has now disappeared seems to shew that it was an artificial harbour, constructed in defiance of the natural unfitness of the site, exactly, in fact, what the term Portus Novus (New Port) would naturally be -
