The Forum-Basilica at Caerwent (Venta Silurum): A History of the Roman Silures

Abstract

Lying at the heart of the city of Venta Silurum, the forum-basilica at Caerwent tells the public, municipal, story of the Civitas Silurum in south Wales. The re-excavation of this complex between 1987 and 1995 revealed a wealth of new information that has a great deal to tell us about the history of the city and the fortunes of its inhabitants. Constructed in the early second century and rebuilt in the middle of the fourth century, the forum-basilica was where the administrative, judicial, commercial and religious functions of the city were located. The modifications to the basilica at the very end of the Roman period indicate continued use of this civic space in the later fourth and fifth centuries.