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. |
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. |
Tour
the Roman Forum
