Exeter City

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies among the ceremonial county of Devon, of that it's the seat still because the home of Devon organisation. presently the executive space has the standing of a non-metropolitan district, and is thus below the administration of the organisation. the town is on the watercourse Exe, regarding thirty seven miles  northeast of Plymouth, and seventy miles  southwest of city. in line with the 2001 Census, its population therein year was 111,076, whereas the mid-2010 estimate was 119,600. 

Exeter was the foremost south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its Exeter Cathedral, supported within the early twelfth century, became Anglican at the time of the sixteenth century Reformation. Exeter has been known jointly of the highest 10 most profitable locations for a business to be based mostly. the town has sensible transport links, with Exeter St Davids terminal, Exeter Central terminal, the M5 freeway and Exeter International field connecting the town each across the nation and internationally. though a well-liked traveller destination, the town isn't dominated by commercial enterprise.

The favourable location of Exeter, on a dry ridge of land ending in a spur that overlooks a navigable river that was teeming with fish, and with fertile land nearby, suggests that it would have been a site that was occupied early.The discovery of coins dating from the Hellenistic period in the city indicates the existence of a settlement that was trading with the Mediterranean region as early as 250 BC.

The Latin name for Exeter, Isca Dumnoniorum, suggests that the city was of Celtic origin. This oppidum, on the banks of the River Exe certainly existed prior to the foundation of the Roman city in about AD 50, however the name may have been suggested by a Celtic adviser to the Romans, rather than by the original inhabitants of the place.

Such early towns, or proto-cities, had been a feature of pre-Roman Gaul as described by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, and it is possible that they existed in neighbouring Britannia as well. Isca is derived from a Brythonic Celtic word for flowing water, which was given to the Exe and, elsewhere, to the River Usk on which Caerleon in Monmouthshire stands. This element is clearly present in the Modern Welsh names for Exeter and the River Exe . The Romans gave the city the name Isca Dumnoniorum in order to distinguish it from Isca Augusta, modern Caerleon. Excavations in the 1970s and 1980s established the presence of a Roman military fortress at Exeter almost certainly for Legion II Augusta. In 2010 part of a Roman military works depot and supply base was excavated at the St Loyes site on Topsham Road; it lay on the line of the Roman road between the fortress at Exeter and a small fort at Topsham.

Significant parts of the Roman wall remain, though most of the visible structure is later. Most of its route can be traced on foot. A substantial Roman baths complex was excavated in the 1970s, but because of its proximity to the cathedral, it was not practicable to retain the excavation for public view. Exeter was also the southern starting point for the Fosse Way Roman road.

More than 1,000 Roman coins have been found in the city indicating its importance as a trading centre. The dates of these coins suggest that the city was at its most prosperous in the first half of the fourth century. However, virtually no coins dated after AD 380 have been found, suggesting a rapid decline.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org