Roman Town [75 - 400]

The Town

Following the departure of the legion, Exeter was chosen as the regional capital (‘civitas capital’) of the people of Devon and Cornwall - the Dumnonii. It was known as Isca Dumnoniorum. A new stone forum was laid out at the centre of the old fortress site, and local people who accepted Roman authority and customs soon set up shops and houses on the plots surrounding it.

A century later, the city had grown beyond the limits of the old fortress, and when Exeter, like other regional capitals in Britain, began building town defences around AD 180-200, they enclosed a considerably larger area of 93 acres. In the third and fourth centuries the town seems to have been at least modestly prosperous. Four buildings are known to have had costly mosaic floors. Our impression is however that it was not as prosperous as the neighbouring towns of Ilchester and Dorchester, still less the larger towns.

By the late 4th century Exeter was in terminal decline. The suburbs had already been abandoned by about AD 360; by the 380s the money supply ceased and the population had contracted to the centre of town. At this time farming was being practised in much of the walled area. Soon - probably not long after AD 400 - urban life had ceased.

Settlements outside the walled town

Excavation in Exeter has always been concentrated within the walled area. There must, however, have been many scattered settlements in the surrounding countryside. Roman coins, collected casually by members of the public and donated to our museum over the last 150 years, offer the most extensive evidence of this rural activity. The find-spots of many of these coins were poorly recorded, so are not plotted here. Those shown below are among the examples for which we have detailed records.