Venta Belgarum
Venta Belgarum, or Venta Bulgarum, was a town in the Roman province of Britannia Superior, the civitas capital of the local tribe, the Belgae, and which later became the city of Winchester.
Etymology
The name is
Development
The settlement was apparently established around AD 70, partially on the site of Oram's Arbour, which had been abandoned for some years.
It became the tribal capital of the Belgae, who had probably held several
The River Itchen was diverted and a street grid laid out. Although in the early years of the Roman province it was of subsidiary importance to Silchester and Chichester, Venta eclipsed them both by the latter half of the second century.[2]
A defensive bank and ditch were dug around the town in the 2nd century.[3] At the beginning of the third century, Winchester was given protective stone walls. At around this time, the city covered an area of 144 acres (58 ha), making it among the largest towns in Roman Britain by surface area. The city had many fine Roman townhouses or domus, as well as public buildings and Roman temples.
Like many other Roman towns, however, Winchester began to decline in the later fourth century.
Religion
The
Decline
From the mid-4th century, new development at Venta halted. Houses fell into disrepair and the drainage system collapsed. The population concentrated itself in the higher and drier areas of the town. The defences were however strengthened and the cemeteries remained in use, notably with burials of males wearing so-called military-style mercenary belts. Historian David Nash Ford identifies the community as the Cair Guinntguic[5] ("Fort Venta") listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain in his History of the Britains.[6]
Following the
References
- ^ The Towns of Roman Britain, J.Wacher. Anchor Press 1974.
- ^ Cunliffe B. Wessex to AD 1000 1997
- ^ The Towns of Roman Britain, J.Wacher. Anchor Press 1974. p. 277
- ^ James Gill (7 January 2014). "Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited". radiotimes.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ Nennius (attrib.). Theodor Mommsen (ed.). Historia Brittonum, VI. Composed after AD 830. (in Latin) Hosted at Latin Wikisource.
- ^ Ford, David Nash. "The 28 Cities of Britain". Britannia. 2000. Archived 21 August 2001 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ D. C. Maccarthy (1858). The Physical and Historical Geography of the British Empire. Burns and Lambert. p. 53.
Venta Bulgarum.