Isca Dumnoniorum but seems to have gone into decline prior to the Roman withdrawal from Britain . The name "Isca Dumnoniorum" is a Latinization of a native Brittonic name describing flowing water, in reference to the River Exe. More exactly, the name seems to have originally meant "full of fish" (cf. Welsh "pysg", "fish"), although it came to be a simple synonym for water (cf. Scottish whiskey). This is also reflected in the modern Welsh name for Exeter: "Caerwysg" meaning "fortified settlement on the river Uisc". The same name was used for the River Usk (modern ) in southern Wales, causing the
Nomen (Roman name) Nomen (Roman name) The nomen gentilicium, or "gentile name", designated a Roman citizen as a member of a gens. A gens, which may be translated as "race", "family", or "clan", constituted an extended Roman family, all of whom shared the same nomen, and claimed descent from a common ancestor. Particularly in the early Republic, the gens functioned as a state within the state, observing its own sacred rites, and establishing private laws, which were binding on its members, although not on the community as a whole. Although the other peoples of Italy also possessed nomina, the distinction between Romans and