Isca Dumnoniorum was a town in the Roman province

Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...

 of Britannia

Britannia

Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

 and the capital of Dumnonia

Dumnonia

Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...

 in the sub-Roman period. Today it is known as Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

, located 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 Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

.

Fortress

Isca was established as a 42 acres (169,968.1 m²) 'playing-card' shaped Roman fort

Castra

The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...

 on a spur of land overlooking the banks of the River Exe

River Exe

The River Exe in England rises near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, near the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south coast of Devon...

 around AD 50

50

Year 50 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vetus and Nerullinus...

. It was the base of the 5,000 strong Second Legion

Legio II Augusta

Legio secunda Augusta , was a Roman legion, levied by Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus in 43 BC, and still operative in Britannia in the 4th century...

 for the next twenty-five years, before they moved to Isca Augusta

Isca Augusta

Isca Augusta was a Roman legionary fortress and settlement, the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day village of Caerleon on the northern outskirts of the city of Newport in South Wales.-Name:...

. It also became home to their families as settlements grew up outside the fortress gates, especially to the north-east. Most of the buildings within the fort, such as barrack blocks and granaries, were timber structures apart from a very large military bath house. The water was supplied by a natural spring via an aqueduct

Aqueduct

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

. Entertainment at the complex included a cockpit

Cockfight

A cockfight is a blood sport between two roosters , held in a ring called a cockpit. Cockfighting is now illegal throughout all states in the United States, Brazil, Australia and in most of Europe. It is still legal in several U.S. territories....

.

Civilian town

About AD 80

80

Year 80 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Domitianus...

, the fort was converted to a civilian settlement and became 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...

 capital of the Dumnonii

Dumnonii

The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British Celtic tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall in the farther parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period...

 tribe. The military baths were too large for the local population and were largely demolished for, though partially incorporated into, the administrative forum

Forum (Roman)

A forum was a public square in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls...

 and basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 built on the site. New town baths

Thermae

In ancient Rome, thermae and balnea were facilities for bathing...

 were built to the south-east. In the late 2nd century, the town walls were demolished and a new set erected at some distance, thus increasing the size of the town by two and a half times. There was much domestic occupation within the walls, but there is also evidence of copper and bronze working. A possible stock-yard has also been identified and Isca was clearly a key market centre for livestock and agricultural produce, as well as pottery, produced in the surrounding countryside.

Decline

The forum and basilica were demolished around the middle of the 5th century when a cemetery, probably Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, was established on the site. It continued in use into the Anglo-Saxon period when the town became known as 'Isca-Castra' or Exeter.

Remains

• Much of the Roman
  Roman Britain
  Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
  
   town wall survives as the lower courses or inner core of the medieval city walls, 70% of which remains to be seen around Exeter.
• Finds from the Roman town, particularly the Roman Fortress Baths excavations of 1971-76, may be seen in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum
  Royal Albert Memorial Museum
  Royal Albert Memorial Museum on Queen Street, Exeter, Devon, England is the largest museum in the city.-History:Initially proposed by Sir Stafford Northcote as a practical memorial to Prince Albert, an appeal fund was launched in 1861 and the first phases of the building were completed by 1868...
  
  in Exeter.

External links