Roman conquest of Britain Claudius returned to Rome to celebrate his victory. Caratacus escaped and would continue the resistance further west. Vespasian took a force westwards subduing tribes and capturing "oppida" as he went, going at least as far as Exeter, which would appear to have become an early base for Leg. II Augusta. Legio IX Hispana was sent north towards Lincoln () and within four years of the invasion it is likely that an area south of a line from the Humber to the Severn Estuary was under Roman control. That this line is followed by the Roman road of the Fosse Way
Exeter Cair listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the "History of the Britons" as Isca, although David Nash Ford read it as a reference to Penselwood and thought it more likely to be Lindinis (modern Ilchester). Nothing is certainly known of Exeter from the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain around the year 410 until the seventh century. By that time, the city was held by the Saxons, who had arrived in Exeter after defeating the British Dumnonians at Peonnum in Somerset in 658. It seems likely that the Saxons maintained a quarter of the city for the