History of the Isle of Wight inhabitants of southern Britain at this time may indeed have been Germanic, rather than Celtic, which could re-open the possibility of the island's name having Germanic roots. The Romans occupied southern Britain, including the Isle of Wight, for nearly four hundred years. The Romans built no towns on the island, but it became an agricultural centre, and at least seven Roman villas are known. The Roman villas at Newport and Brading have been excavated and are open to the public. When fully developed around 300 AD, Brading was probably the largest on the Island, being a courtyard villa with impressive
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