Venta Icenorum, probably meaning "Market Town of the Iceni", located at modern-day Caistor St Edmund in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, was the civitas

Civitas

In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas , according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law . It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other...

 or capital of the Iceni

Iceni

The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...

tribe, who inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and earned immortality for their revolt against Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 rule under their queen Boudica

Boudica

Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....

 (or Boadicea) in the winter of 61 CE. After the failure of the revolt the Roman legions slaughtered or enslaved most of the Iceni and forced the few survivors to abandon their tribal ways and live in a Roman style planned town. The underpopulated countryside around the town became very attractive to Germanic migrants, in particular the East Angles, who would later settle the area and expel any of the remaining Icenian Britons.

The town, which is mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmography

Ravenna Cosmography

The Ravenna Cosmography was compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around AD 700. It consists of a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland. Textual evidence indicates that the author frequently used maps as his source....

, and the Antonine Itinerary

Antonine Itinerary

The Antonine Itinerary is a register of the stations and distances along the various roads of the Roman empire, containing directions how to get from one Roman settlement to another...

, was a settlement near the village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 of Caistor St. Edmund

Caistor St. Edmund

Caistor St Edmund is a village on the River Tas, near Norwich, Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 270 in 116 households at the 2001 census....

, some 5 miles (8 km) south of present-day Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

, and a mile or two from the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 henge

Henge

There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork which are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside...

 at Arminghall

Arminghall

Arminghall is a small village in the English county of Norfolk, around three miles southeast of Norwich in the parish of Bixley. Most of the houses in the village are located close to the church, which lies just west of the B1332 road from Norwich to Poringland. Syfer Technology, an electronic...

. It lies on the River Tas

River Tas

The River Tas is a river which flows northwards through South Norfolk in England - towards Norwich. The area is named the Tas Valley after the river. The origin of the name of the river is uncertain - it may have taken it from the village of Tasburgh or vice versa.Tributaries which have their...

. The embankments of Venta Icenorum can still be seen at Caistor today.

The ruins (British National Grid ref TG230034) are in the care of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust and managed by South Norfolk Council.

External links

• http://www.livescience.com/history/071217-roman-town.html LiveScience - New Details of Ancient Roman Town Uncovered