has been inhabited since paleolithic times. Hand axes found in Kents Cavern date to 450,000 years ago, and a maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be oldest example of a modern human in Europe. Little is known of its early history until the arrival of the Roman Empire in Britain during the Claudian invasion of 43. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay at some point during this period, leaving offerings at a strange rock formation in Kents Cavern, known as 'The Face'. It is possible these soldiers could have been part of the Legio II Augusta, commanded by the future Emperor Vespasian during the invasion of Britain in 43 considering his extensive actions in the South West, during which according to the Roman historian Suetonius: "He reduced to subjection two powerful nations, more than twenty towns, and the island of Vectis". No evidence has been found of Roman settlement in the area but Roman finds have been uncovered in nearby Totnes, Newton Abbot and on Berry Head on the opposite side of Torbay existed an Iron Age fort and a cache of Roman coins was discovered in 1730, including among others a coin of the Emperor Claudius which dates the find to the same period as Vespasian's activity in the South West. Furthermore, when construction began on the Belgrave Hotel on Torquay seafront in 1840, workmen discovered evidence of a large road between fifteen and twenty feet wide "consisting of large stones placed end to end and requiring gunpowder to break it up and remove it, such was the strength with which it was built." This road was known locally as the 'calcetum' (Latin for causeway) and is mentioned in a number of Medieval and Early Modern sources as a boundary line between various estates in the town, where people would often meet. Given its size, the quality of its construction and the lack of development in this area of Torquay until the nineteenth century, it is possible these were the remains of a Roman road, as local historians J.T White and Percy Russell have suggested, although no further excavations have taken place due to the site being under Torbay Road. The existence of a Roman road leading out of Isca Dumnoniorum and towards Western Devon crossing the River Teign at Teignbridge some 14 miles north of Torquay also suggests this road could have been part