History of the Isle of Wight seek an alternative to bronze. It has been suggested that a 1st century BCE reference to "Ίκτιν" ("Ictin") by the Graeco-Sicilian Diodorus Siculus might refer to the Isle of Wight, although St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall is now considered more likely. A century later, Pliny the Elder uses its Latin name "Vectis" and in the mid 2nd century Ptolemy confirms the position of Vectis as ""...below Magnus Portus"" (probably the port near Bosham). The Roman historian Suetonius calls the island "insula Vecta" in his account of its capture in year 43, referring to the future emperor Vespasian, who ""proceeded to
Britain (place name) is not synonymous with "Britain", "Great Britain", or "United Kingdom". The classical writer, Ptolemy, referred to the larger island as "great Britain" ("megale Bretannia") and to Ireland as "little Britain" ("mikra Brettania") in his work, "Almagest" (147–148 AD). In his later work, "Geography" (c. 150 AD), he gave these islands the names Ἀλουίωνος ("Alwiōnos"), Ἰουερνίας ("Iwernias"), and "Mona" (the Isle of Man), suggesting these may have been native names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing "Almagest". The name "Albion" appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Great