Isca Dumnoniorum Isca Dumnoniorum Isca Dumnoniorum, also known simply as Isca, was a town in the Roman province of Britannia at the site of present-day Exeter in the English county of Devon in the United Kingdom. It served as the tribal capital of the Dumnonians under and after the Romans. The city walls of Exeter (some 70% of which survive) mark the former perimeter of Isca and excavations in the 1970s and 1980s verified that the town was home to a Roman fortress almost certainly for the Second Augustan Legion. The town seems to have grown up around this fort (established )
Isca Augusta legion was needed to repel a potential invasion from the Continent. The stone from Isca may have been used for building defences on the south coast. There may still have been an occasional military presence as late as the early 4th century, but the fortress was probably later taken over by the people of the surrounding vicus. The basilica of the baths was used as a cattle pen. Recent finds suggest Roman occupation of some kind as late as AD 380. According to the Gildas (followed by Bede), Roman Caerleon was the site of two early Christian martyrdoms in Britain,