Vecta
Οὐηκτίς
Vecta or VECTIS (Οὐηκτίς, Ptol. 2.3.33), an island on the S. coast of Britannia Romana, lying opposite to the Portus Magnus (Portsmouth). It was known to the Romans before their conquest of Britain, through the Massiliots, who had here a station for their tin trade. (Diod. 5.22, 38.) At that time the channel between the island and the mainland become almost dry at ebb tide, so that the Britons carried their tin in carts to the island. It was first conquered by Vespasian, in the reign of Claudius. (Suet. Vesp. 4.) Now the Isle of Wight. (Cf. Itin. Ant. p. 509; Eum. Pan. Const. 15; Mela, 3.6; Plin. Nat. 4.16. s. 30.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.