The excavation of an ancient Roman city has rewritten the history of the Empire’s collapse, archaeologists say.
A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge completed a 13-year dig at Interamna Lirenas, the site of a Roman colony in central Italy.
This settlement has long been written off as a failed backwater, but new evidence suggested it flourished even as the Roman Empire crumbled around it.
The Crisis of the Third Century was a period of decline that spanned 235 to 284 CE and ultimately saw the Empire split into three separate political entities: the Roman Empire, the Gallic Empire and the Palmyrene Empire.
These years were tormented by widespread civil wars, barbarian invasions, inflation and economic depression, and plagues.
But despite these challenges, Interamna Lirenas managed to thrive well into the third century, 300 years longer than experts previously thought. At its peak, it was home to some 2,000 people.
Fragments of ancient pottery were uncovered at the site, allowing the team to map dates for when it was inhabited.
They hypothesize residents fled the town in fear of enemy armies, but it wasn’t sudden or as soon as previously believed.
Interamna Lirenas has long been written off as a failed backwater, but new evidence uncovered by a 13-year-long excavation suggests it actually flourished even as the Roman Empire crumbled around it
The Crisis of the Third Century was a period of decline that spanned 235 to 284 CE and ultimately saw the Empire split into three separate political entities: the Roman Empire, the Gallic Empire and the Palmyrene Empire
‘We started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it — that’s very rare in Italy,’ said Alessandro Launaro, lead researcher on the project.
‘There was nothing on the surface, no visible evidence of buildings, just bits of broken pottery. But what we discovered wasn’t a backwater, far from it. We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years.’
Launaro and his colleagues conducted a magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey the site, as well as a series of targeted excavations.
The GPR survey turned up evidence of a large warehouse, a temple and a bath complex which served a port on the River Liri between the late first century BCE and the fourth century CE, Popular Mechanics reported.
‘River ports didn’t just need warehouses,’ Launaro in a statement. ‘People spent a lot of time working and resting in the vicinity so they needed all kinds of amenities, just like the ones we found here.’
This river port ‘would have been crucial to the town’s success’ because it enabled Interamna Lirenas to trade with major commercial centers such as Aquinum and Casinum in the north, and Minturnae and the Tyrrhenian coast in the southeast.
The excavations unearthed tens of thousands of pieces of commonware pottery as well as the remains of a roofed theater, dense neighborhoods and more bathhouses.
Previous analysis of pottery fragments recovered from Interamna Lirenas suggested the city’s occupation peaked from the late second century to the early century BCE, then declined by the first century CE.
But Launaro’s team found evidence to support a different timeline. After analyzing the pottery they uncovered, the researchers concluded that the city resisted decline until the late third century CE, three centuries later than previously assumed.
‘Based on the relative lack of imported pottery, archaeologists have assumed that Interamna Lirenas was a declining backwater. We now know that wasn’t the case.’
Launaro and his colleagues conducted a magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey the site, as well as a series of targeted excavations. Pictured: Interpretation of geophysical survey results showing underground traces of Interamna Lirenas
The excavations unearthed tens of thousands of pieces of commonware pottery as well as the remains of a roofed theater, dense neighborhoods and more bathhouses. Pictured: the remains of the theater and basilica from above
An artist’s impression of the interior of the Interamna Lirenas theatre from the seating area, showing the ‘scaena,’ or the facade of the stage
The theater ‘would have towered over an open terrace’ and was large enough to seat 1,500 people, according to the researchers.
Roofed theaters are rare in Roman Italy and boasted far more sophisticated acoustics and architecture than the more common open-air amphitheaters, they said.
Remains of the theater at Interamna Lirenas also contained ‘diverse marbles imported from across the central and eastern Mediterranean.’
‘The fact that this town went for a roofed theatre, such a refined building, does not fit with a backwater in decline,’ Launaro said.
‘This theatre was a major status symbol. It displayed the town’s wealth, power and ambition.’
He and his colleagues published their findings in the edited volume Roman Urbanism in Italy in 2023.
Though the evidence of Interamna Lirenas’ resilience is surprising, ‘we’re not saying that this town was special,’ Launaro said. ‘It’s far more exciting than that.
‘We think many other average Roman towns in Italy were just as resilient. It’s just that archaeologists have only recently begun to apply the right techniques and approaches to see this.’
