Venta Belgarum Venta Belgarum Venta Belgarum 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. The name comes from Common Brittonic "*Uentā", meaning "town, place", plus the Latin genitive plural "Belgarum" "of the Belgae (tribe)". 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 Iron Age hill forts in the near vicinity of the site (St Catherine's Hill,
Alton, Hampshire Alton, Hampshire Alton is a market town and civil parish in Hampshire, England, near the source of the River Wey. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 17,816. Alton was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086 as "Aoltone". The Battle of Alton occurred in the town during the English Civil War. It also has connections with Sweet Fanny Adams and Jane Austen. The Alton Hoard of Iron Age coins and jewellery was found in the vicinity of the town in 1996 and is now in the British Museum. A Roman road ran from Chichester to Silchester and