Dumnonia until they submitted to the See of Canterbury in the mid-9th century. Parish organisation was a later development of fully Normanised times. Around AD 55, the Romans established a legionary fortress at "Isca Dumnoniorum", modern Exeter, but west of Exeter the area remained largely un-Romanized. Most of Dumnonia is notable for its lack of a villa system, though there were substantial numbers south of Bath and around Ilchester, and for its many settlements that have survived from the Romano-British period. As in other Brythonic areas, Iron Age hillforts, such as Hembury and Cadbury Castle, were refortified in post-Roman times for
Insula (Roman city) Insula (Roman city) An insula (Latin for "island") is a city block in an ancient Roman city plan, i.e. one that is surrounded by four streets. The term was also used for apartment buildings that took up an entire city block. A standard Roman city plan was based on a grid of orthogonal streets and was probably founded on the ancient Greek model of Hippodamus and was used when new cities were established, e.g. in Roman coloniae. The main streets of each city would be the Decumanus Maximus (east–west-oriented) and Cardo Maximus (north–south) which intersected at, or close to, the