Interamna Lirenas Wasn’t a Backwater; Ancient Roman Colony Was a Thriving Town [Study]

According to a recent study, a Roman town in central Italy was thriving in contrast to previous reports that it was a backwater. The discovery challenges the ancient empire's decline.

Interamma Lirenas Was a Thriving Town

Archaeologists have discovered the remnants of a covered theater, market, and river port in an ancient Roman town. According to a study conducted by Cambridge University, Interamna Lirenas was a bustling town in central Italy.

The site's discoveries indicate that the collapse started roughly 300 years later than previously believed by scientists. The village in southern Lazio resisted collapse until the latter half of the third century AD, based on an analysis of pottery excavated from the site.

The hamlet, which is currently primarily agricultural land, would have supported roughly 2,000 people at its height. According to Dr. Alessandro Launaro, the study author, they started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever traveled to the area, which was rare in Italy.

There were only shards of broken pottery and no signs of houses on the surface. However, what they found was anything but a backwater.

"We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years. We're not saying that this town was special, it's far more exciting than that," he said.

Per Dr. Launaro, the lead of Cambridge's Classics faculty's Interamna Lirenas project, archaeologists had previously thought the town was a fading outpost. The scientific team dug holes and surveyed an area of roughly 60 acres (24 hectares) using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic methods.

The researchers are sure that the massive warehouse, temple, and bath complex they discovered during the study near the River Liri acted as a river port between the late first century BC and the fourth century AD.

Remains of a covered theater with space for 1,500 seats were also found. It reportedly highlighted the town's ambition, power, and money. In addition, they discovered 19 courtyard structures and what they thought to be a sheep and cattle market.

There was no indication that the town was being violently destroyed as they didn't find an ash layer.

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What Is Interamna Lirenas?

In 312 BC, the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas was established in the Aquinum (Aquino) and Cassinum (Cassino) settlements. Its topography was indicated by the term Interamna, from the Latin inter amnes, "between rivers," while its geographic location was suggested by the adjective Liren, which means "on the Liris."

Initially established as a Latin colony, the town was bound by a close military and political alliance despite being officially independent from Rome. It was situated at the intersection of two major routes for communication: the via Latina, which connected Lazio and Campania, and the course of the river Liris, which joined the hinterland to the Tyrrhenian coast. It began with the Roman military campaigns against the Samnites in late 4th-century central-southern Italy as part of a larger phase of Roman expansion.

The Central Italian hinterland and the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas have been the focus of an integrated fieldwork project comprising geophysical prospection, field survey, and excavation since 2010. Since the long-term link between the countryside and the town reflects the more significant changes from the Republic to the Empire in Roman Italy, this research program is particularly interested in this topic.