The history of the fall of the Roman Empire has been rewritten by new excavations

The abandoned city in Italy of Interamna Lirenas turned out to be much more than just a “backwater town” of the Roman Empire. According to a study published in the journal Roman Urbanism in Italy, this city in central Italy flourished during the Roman Empire, continuing to actively fight against the collapse of the state in the third century.

“We started from a place so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it,” explains Interamna Lirenas project manager Alessandro Lunaro in a statement, “this is a rarity in Italy.”

The team was amazed at what they discovered, from indoor theaters and markets to warehouses and a river port. This discovery overturned previously held assumptions about the area and the decline of Roman Italy. It turns out that Interamna Lirenas existed about 300 years longer than previously thought, and was also a thriving city.

“There was nothing on the surface, no visible traces of buildings, only pieces of broken ceramics,” says Alessandrog Lunaro, “but what we found was not a remote place, not at all. It was a thriving city that adapted to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years.”

The archaeological team used magnetic and ground penetrating radar sensors to survey approximately 60 acres. The excavations began with the idea that many other average Roman cities in Italy were just as cheerful. It turns out that archaeologists have only recently begun to use the right methods and approaches to see this.

The team admitted that the evidence was ceramics. By focusing on common utensils used for cooking, rather than imported ceramics that often indicate high-status living, the team could better map the locations and dates of citizen movements in the region. These pottery studies showed that, rather than the city’s size peaking in the late 2nd or early 1st centuries BC as previously thought, the city existed successfully until the late 3rd century AD.

“Based on the relative paucity of imported pottery,” comments the chief archaeologist at the Lunaro excavations, “archaeologists have suggested that Interamna Lirenas was a backwater in decline. Now we know that this was not the case. Instead of favoring imported pottery, the town, which probably had about 2,000 inhabitants, was busy making its own ware.”

Researchers also argue that the city was likely visited by Julius Caesar in 46 BC because Intermana Lirenas was part of a regional urban network and ideally located between the river and the main road.

“This city has always played its cards right,” says Lunaro, “it has always developed relationships with the communities between Rome and southern Italy, while also thriving as a trading center.” Archaeologists also discovered evidence of a warehouse measuring 39 by 11 meters, which was likely used to store goods for export to other regions.

Archaeologists also discovered an indoor theater measuring approximately 44 by 25 meters, large enough to accommodate fifteen hundred spectators. “The city chose an indoor theater, such an elegant building, does not correspond to a backwater in decline,” the archaeologist emphasizes, adding that “the theater was the main symbol of status. It demonstrated the wealth, power and ambition of the city.”

Three bath complexes – with evidence of continued use and maintenance after the decline of Roman Italy – and housing that showed no signs of zoning or segregation by social status further contributed to the apparent evidence of the city’s prosperity. Throughout their 60-acre survey, the team identified 19 courtyard structures that they believe could have been markets, guild houses, warehouses or apartments. Archaeologists believe they have found a market for sheep and cattle that was key to the region’s thriving wool trade.

Since no layer of ash or evidence of the city’s violent destruction was found, Lunaro believes the community was eventually abandoned as residents became fearful of marauding armies. The end of Interamna Lirenas was not as sudden or rapid as previously thought, allowing scholars to rewrite part of the history of the fall of the Roman Empire correctly.