Venta Belgarum

Venta Belgarum was the Roman town at Winchester in Hampshire, capital of the civitas of the Belgae in Roman Britain. It grew near a late Iron Age enclosure at Oram's Arbour and became one of the larger towns of the province, with a street grid, a forum and defensive walls. It declined after Roman rule ended, but Winchester later became the chief royal centre of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.