Bloomsbury Academic (2025) h/b 180pp £58.50 (ISBN 978135039978)
At an early stage in the Roman occupation of southern Britain, the new town Venta Belgarum was established. The Belgae were probably of continental origin. Venta is generally taken to mean marketplace, although there are other possible interpretations. The town had a fertile agrarian hinterland. It was probably controlled by the same elite groups as had held power during the late Iron Age, although they were now answerable to the Roman authorities. There is evidence that many timber buildings there were burnt down during the Neronian period. Although Boudicca did not favour the Winchester area with a visit, this was a period of social unrest.
Whereas most town walls in the province date from the late second century, Venta Belgarum started to develop urban defences in the Flavian period, around AD 70. All the usual Romanised buildings appeared, including forum and basilica. There was also an aqueduct which carried in water from the river Itchen to supply the baths and other urban features. Unfortunately, later developments have obliterated most of the remains from the Roman period. One important inscription survives, because that piece of stone was reused in the wall of the Old County Jail. This records that a building had been restored by Antonius Lucretianus, a beneficiarus consularis. He was a senior military official who reported directly to the provincial governor. Lucretianus may have had a role in overseeing the layout of the new town or the construction of the aqueduct. The town seems to have been prosperous. Some wooden houses along the streets had glazed windows, plastered walls and mosaic floors. Residues of metal working, bone working and glass blowing have been found in the north and western suburbs. Samian ware from Gaul and large quantities of amphorae have been recovered during recent excavations.
There were major town improvements in the second and third centuries. These included constructing a rampart along the banks of the river Itchen and rebuilding some of the larger timber structures in stone. The town defences were improved. A wall was added, together with an elaborate stone gatehouse. By now Venta Belgarum/Winchester was the fifth largest town in Britain.
The town declined in the fourth century. During the fifth and sixth centuries Germanic speaking migrants started to populate the area. Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been found on land to the east of the river Itchen. Although this marked the end of the Romanised settlement, it was the start of a much more glorious period in which Winchester emerged as the principal city in the kingdom of Wessex. It became the burial place for many Anglo-Saxon kings, most famously Alfred the Great, although his remains were later transferred to Hyde Abbey.
This excellent book begins with an account of the twentieth century investigations. Between 1961 and 1971 Winchester Excavations Committee carried out the largest programme of archaeological excavations ever undertaken in a British city. Professor Martin Biddle supervised and directed the project. Some 3,000 volunteers did the digging, including this reviewer after struggling through his A levels in June 1966. The authors of this book are the Secretary and the Associate Director of the Winchester Excavations Committee. So they know what they are talking about. After a discussion of the Iron Age and Bronze Age, there is a chapter on the Roman period entitled ‘The rise and fall of Venta Belgarum’. There are then two chapters describing medieval Winchester. The last part of the book is a much briefer account of its later history.
For classicists, the principal focus of interest may be the discussion of the Roman period, as summarised above. But readers will also be fascinated by the account of how Winchester reinvented itself as a top Anglo-Saxon city. The book is well illustrated with colour photographs and maps, as well as a chronology.
Rupert Jackson