Isca Dumnoniorum

Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable river teeming with fish, with fertile land nearby.

[citation needed] Following their initial invasions, the Romans established a 42-acre (17 ha) 'playing-card' shaped fort (Latin: castrum) at the site around AD 55.

Buildings within the fortress, such as barracks, granaries, and workshop (fabrica), were timber structures, the post-trenches of which were excavated in the 1970s in advance of the Guildhall shopping centre development.

The water for the bathhouse was supplied by a natural spring via an aqueduct which entered the fortress through the rear gate (porta decumana).

The presence of the legion at Exeter is supported by the discovery of a dolphin antefix (roof fitting) from levels within the military bathhouse dated to about AD 60.

[10] It was also listed on the late-2nd century Antonine Itinerary, where it forms the southern terminus of route 15 (Iter XV) on the Fosse Way, and on the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography, where it appears as the apparently confused entry of Scadu Namorum.

In the late 2nd century, the ditch and rampart defences around the fortress were replaced by a bank and wall enclosing a much larger area, some 92 acres (37 ha).

A possible stock-yard has also been identified and Isca was clearly a key market for livestock, crops, and pottery produced in the surrounding countryside.

[14] Bishop Ussher identified the Cair Pensa vel Coyt[15] listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons as Isca,[16] although Ford read it as a reference to Penselwood and thought it more likely to be Lindinis (modern Ilchester).

[17] Isca was also known to the British as Caer Uisc[citation needed] but, after the Roman withdrawal from Britain around 410, there is very little evidence of habitation in Exeter for almost 300 years except for the remains of a building (possibly a church) in the area of the demolished forum and a few nearby graves dated to the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries.