Roman 'backwater' bucked Empire's decline, archaeologists reveal

View of the Interamna Lirenas excavation from above and from the North. Photograph taken in September 2023. The remains of the theater can be seen in the center, with the remains of the basilica behind it. Credit: Alessandro Launaro

A rare roofed theater, markets, warehouses, a river port and other startling discoveries made by a Cambridge-led team of archaeologists challenge major assumptions about the decline of Roman Italy.

New findings from Interamna Lirenas, traditionally written off as a failed backwater in Central Italy, change our understanding of Roman history, its excavators believe.

Their thirteen-year study—published today in the edited volume "Roman Urbanism in Italy"—shows that the town in Southern Lazio continued to thrive well into the 3rd century A.D., bucking what is normally considered Italy's general state of decline in this period.

Read the rest of this article...