Venta Icenorum

Venta Icenorum was a Roman town in Britain in present-day Norfolk. She was the capital of the civitas of the Celtic tribe of the Iceni. Although the Iceni already in pre-Roman times had a certain importance and this took place the revolt of Boudicca, there are no remains of a Celtic town, the evidence of a settlement at this point clearly.

Venta Icenorum is today part by Caistor St. Edmund (also Caistor -by- Norwich ), a village with about 270 inhabitants overbuilt. Various excavations and aerial photograph gives a relatively accurate picture of the ancient city.

The place was probably first created quite generous, but was reduced after the revolt of Boudicca. Venta Icenorum received in the Flavian period, with a map at right angles intersecting streets. In the north, but they extend partially not follow this pattern, as was suspected that that this part goes back to pre-Roman times.

In the center of town was the forum in which two phases could be distinguished. It was built in the Antonine period and perhaps replaced an older building. It consisted of an inner 30 × 30 m large square was flanked by colonnades, and a basilica on the west side. A bath was located in the west of the city and an amphitheater was in the south, outside the city walls, are located on aerial photographs. The Forum and bathroom burned down at the end of the second or beginning of the third century. The Forum was established only after some time. To the north of the Forum were in the adjacent insula two Romano- Celtic temple. A third temple stood in the north, outside the city walls. The city wall was eventually built in the third century, with large parts of the city were built outside the walls.

Little is known of the residential areas of the city. Many of the houses seem to have been simple wooden structures, others have been built in stone. Overall, the place does not seem to have been very wealthy. Especially lacking the mosaics. There are also hardly any inscriptions in stone from this place. The city was abandoned in the fifth century and not inhabited for a long time.