Venta Belgarum Oram's Arbour and Worthy Down) once the Romans had pacified the area, as was their policy for relocating many other British tribes. 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. A defensive bank and ditch were dug around the town in the 2nd century. At the beginning of the third century, Winchester was given protective stone walls. At around this time the city covered an area of
Venta Belgarum Britain in his "History of the Britains". Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 410, urban life seems to have ceased around 450, although a small administrative centre might have continued after that on the site of the later Anglo-Saxon palace. Amid the Saxon invasions of Britain, cemeteries dating to the 6th and 7th centuries suggest a revival of settlement and Wintanceastre became the usual court for the kings of Wessex, and then for other Saxon, Danish, and Norman kings of England. Venta Belgarum Venta Belgarum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia Superior, the civitas capital of