Established as a (Latin) colony in 312 BC, Interamna Lirenas existed for nearly nine centuries as a middle-tier community, witness to the rise of Rome’s empire and Italy’s progressive loss of prominence within it. The archaeology of the town and its territory may thus offer an excellent opportunity to trace the local impact of the broader transformations – political, social, economic and cultural – that affected Roman Italy in the long term, between the 4th century BC and the 6th century AD. The integrated application of extensive geophysical prospection, intensive field survey, targeted excavation and systematic study of finds (commonware pottery specifically) have produced a rich archaeological dataset. This has made it possible to follow the development of this community across town and countryside – at an impressive level of detail. This research has thus revealed how, far from a straightforward narrative of “rise and fall”, the inhabitants of Interamna Lirenas had variedly adapted to new conditions – opportunities and challenges – as they came about. As such, Interamna Lirenas offers an intriguing perspective on the nature and scale of those broader transformations referred to above, offering a distinctive contribution to our understanding of Roman Italy.
Alessandro Launaro is Professor of Roman Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He is specifically interested in the archaeology and history of ancient Italy, in both its urban and rural dimensions, cast against the long-term political, social, economic and cultural transformations of the broader Mediterranean world. He is the author of Peasants and Slaves: the Rural Population of Roman Italy (2011) and (together with martin Millett) of Interamna Lirenas: a Roman Town in Central Italy Revealed (2023). He directs the Interamna Lirenas Project (Southern Lazio, Italy).
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