Ictis British tin was shipped from Massalia on the Mediterranean coast of Gaul. Julius Caesar, in his "De Bello Gallico", says of the Veneti: "This last-named people were by far the most powerful on the coast of Armorica: they had a large fleet plying between their own ports and Britain; they knew more about the handling of ships and the science of navigation than anyone else thereabouts." William Camden, the Elizabethan historian, took the view that the name "Ictis" was so similar to "Vectis", the Latin name for the Isle of Wight, that the two were probably the same island. The
History of the Isle of Wight Britain where he fought thirty battles, subjugated two warlike tribes, and captured more than twenty towns, besides the entire Isle of Vectis"". The form "Vectis" seems reasonably robust but Rivet and Smith were uncertain of its etymology. A gloss on an 1164 manuscript of Nennius equates Old English "wiht" with Latin "divorcium", which has encouraged writers to think that the island sits like a lever (Latin "vectis") between the two arms of the Solent. The word could be Brittonic, from a Celtic root akin to Irish "fecht" "journey" and Welsh "gwaith" "work". A detailed study in 2010 draws attention to