Winchester more urban settlement type developed, known as an oppidum, although the archaeology of this phase remains obscure. It was overrun by the confederation of Gaulish tribes known as the Belgae sometime during the first century BCE. It seems to have been known as Wentā or Venta, derived from the Brittonic for "town" or "meeting place", or the word for "white" (Welsh "gwyn"), due to Winchester's situation upon chalk. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital () of the Belgae and was distinguished as Venta Belgarum, "Venta of the Belgae". Although in the early years of
Roman Road, London Roman Road, London Roman Road is a road in East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and lies on the old Roman road in the Roman Empire called the Pye Road running from the capital of the Iceni at Venta Icenorum (near modern Norwich) to Londinium (modern London) and today hosts a market. It lies in five districts: Bow and Old Ford at its eastern end, while the area with the same name Roman Road lies to just west, to the middle is Mile End and Bethnal Green at its western end. There is some debate about