Isca Dumnoniorum settlement there (modern Caerleon) to be distinguished as "Isca Augusta", while the Devonian Isca was called "Isca Dumnoniorum": Usk of the Dumnonians. Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable river teeming with fish, with fertile land nearby. Although there have been no major prehistoric finds, these advantages suggest the site was occupied early. Coins had been discovered from the Hellenistic kingdoms, suggesting the existence of a settlement trading with the Mediterranean as early as . This is disputed however by Prof T P Wiseman who alleges the hoard was not genuine. Following
Timeline of the name "Palestine" still associated the term with the southern coastal region. In 135 AD, the Greek "Syria Palaestina" was used in naming a new Roman province from the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea after the Roman authorities crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Circumstantial evidence links Hadrian to the renaming of the province, which took place around the same time as Jerusalem was refounded as Aelia Capitolina, but the precise date of the change in province name is uncertain. The common view that the name change was intended "sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland" is disputed. During