Isca Dumnoniorum - Roman Fortress

Roman Fortress

The Romans established a 42-acre (170,000 m2) 'playing-card' shaped fort on a spur of land overlooking the banks of the River Exe around AD 55. It was the base of the 5,000 strong Legio II Augusta for the next 20 years before they moved to Isca Augusta (Caerleon). It also became home to their families as settlements are thought to have grown up outside the fortress gates, especially to the north-east. Buildings within the fortress, such as barrack blocks, granaries and a fabrica (workshop), were timber structures, the post-trenches of which were excavated in the 1970s in advance of the Guildhall shopping centre development. The only known building in the fortress not of timber was a stone-built military bath house. The water for the bathhouse was supplied by a natural spring via an aqueduct which entered the fortress through the rear gate (porta decumana). Excavations in the 1970s revealed the hot room (caldarium) and part of the warm room (tepidarium); the bathhouse was supplied with an external exercise yard (palaestra)in one corner of which was a cockfighting pit

The presence of Legio II Augusta at Exeter is supported by the discovery of a dolphin antefix (roof fitting) from levels within the military bathhouse dated to about AD60. The antefix appears to have been created from the same mould as an example from the legionary fortress at Caerleon - where the legion is known to have been stationed from around AD75 The Legio II Augusta was part of the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43, and future Emperor Vespasian was commander at the time. Vespasian led campaigns against both the Durotriges and Dumnonii. The Legio II Augusta was recorded as having suffered defeat by the Silures in 52. After Suetonius Paulinus's victory crushing the Boudiccan rebellion, the legion moved around military sites in Britannia.

In 2010 part of a Roman military works depot and supply base was excavated at the St Loyes site on Topsham Road; it lay on the line of the Roman road between the fortress at Exeter and a small fort at Topsham. Initial dating suggests that it was occupied at the same time as the Exeter fortress (i.e. c.AD55-75).