Interamna Lirenas

Interamna Lirenas was founded in 312 BC as a colonia of Latins in the ager casinas, on the route of the Via Latina.Salmon, E.T. 1955. "Roman Expansion and Roman Colonization in Italy." Phoenix 9.2:63-75. It was situated at the confluence of the Liri and Rio Spalla Bassa rivers, whence the name "Interamna" (meaning "between the rivers").{{cite web |url=http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/432884 |title=Places: 432884 (Interamna Lirenas) |author=Purcell, N., DARMC, R. Talbert, S. Gillies, T. Elliott, J. Becker |date=6 February 2022 |accessdate=December 17, 2014 |publisher=Pleiades}}

Interamna Lirenas served as a military base during the Samnite Wars, leading to its destruction by the Samnites in 294 BC.{{cite book|author=John R. Patterson|title=Landscapes and cities: rural settlement and civic transformation in early imperial Italy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7k1oAAAAMAAJ|date=7 December 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-814088-7}} It was again ravaged by Hannibal in 212 BC; since it later sided with Carthage, after the Carthaginian defeat at Zama in 202 BC it was forced by Rome to pay heavy tribute.

It became a municipium in about 88 BC following the Social Wars when its population became Roman citizens.

In 46 BC Julius Caesar became patronus of the city as its strategic location between a river and a major road made it a busy node in the regional network, valuable to Caesar during the civil wars and one of only four towns known to share this privilege. The town received further settled veterans ca. 40 BC.{{cite book|author=Alessandro Launaro|title=Peasants and Slaves: The Rural Population of Roman Italy (200 BC to AD 100)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uukt6U7ROE4C&pg=PA132|date=19 May 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00479-5|pages=132–}}

The town was thought to have been a relative backwater based on the relative lack of imported pottery, but recent archaeology has raised its importance,Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.821742 with evidence showing that it resisted the generally accepted decline of Italy in this period until the later part of the 3rd century AD, and around 300 years later than previously assumed.{{cite web |last1=Almeroth-Williams |first1=Tom |title=Roman ‘backwater’ bucked Empire’s decline, archaeologists reveal |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/interamna-lirenas-roman-backwater-bucked-empires-decline |website=University of Cambridge |access-date=12 December 2023 |language=en |date=12 December 2023}}

File:Theatre Interamna Lirenas.png

Excavated remains include a rare roofed theatre faced with exotic marbles from the central and eastern Mediterranean. A port on the river Liri with warehouses fostered trade between the major centres to the north of Aquinum and Casinum, and Minturnae and the Tyrrhenian coast to the southeast.A. Launaro, "Interamna Lirenas: how special?" in A. Launaro (ed.), Roman Urbanism in Italy: Recent Discoveries and New Directions (Oxford, 2023)

There were three thermal bath complexes, the largest near the forum with a large swimming enclosed within a portico from 3rd–4th centuries.

The archaeological site has been sampled by use of geophysical techniques (including magnetometry).Hay, S., Launaro, A., Leone, N. and Millett, M. 2012. "Intermana Lirenas e il suo territorio. Indagine archeologiche non invasive 2010." In Lazio e Sabina 8. Edizione Quasar. pp 603-9{{cite web |url=https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/interamna-lirenas/rcl |title=Roman Colonial Landscapes (archived) |publisher=University of Cambridge }}

An inscribed ancient sundial donated by Marcus Novius Tubula after his election as plebeian tribune in Rome was discovered in the ruins of the theatre in 2017.{{cite web |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/archaeologists-uncover-rare-2000-year-old-sundial-during-roman-theatre-excavation |title=Archaeologists uncover rare 2,000-year-old sundial during Roman theatre excavation |publisher=University of Cambridge }}

By 2023, the excavations, conducted under the auspices of Cambridge University, had discovered remains including a roofed theatre, market, and river port.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67684235 |title=Cambridge experts find Roman theatre in Italy dig |publisher=BBC News |date=12 December 2023 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Bellini |first1=G. R. |last2=Launaro |first2=A. |last3=Millett |first3=M. |title=Roman colonial landscapes: Interamna Lirenas and its territory through antiquity|journal=Papers of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome |date=2014 |volume=62 |pages=255-275 |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245016}}
• {{cite book |last1=Launaro |first1=Alessandro |title=Interamna Lirenas: A Roman town in Central Italy revealed |publisher=McDonald Institute Monographs |year=2023 |isbn=9781913344108}}
• {{cite book|author=Eliodoro Savino|title=Campania tardoantica (284-604 d.C.)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L07S3aMJLMgC&pg=PA187|year=2005|publisher=Edipuglia srl|isbn=978-88-7228-257-1|pages=187–}}

• [http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-roman-theater-interamna-lirenas-01408.html "Roman Theater Unearthed at Interamna Lirenas" Sep 25, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro]
• [http://www.bsr.ac.uk/research/archaeology/geophysics-2/projects/interamna-lazio The British School at Rome: Interamna Lirenas, Lazio]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131009214239/http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/research_groups_and_societies/roman_colonial_landscapes/ Roman Colonial Landscapes project]

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Category:Roman towns and cities in Italy

Category:Latin cities

Category:Former populated places in Italy

Category:Populated places established in the 4th century BC

Category:310s BC establishments

Category:Roman sites in Lazio

Category:Archaeological sites in Lazio

Category:Coloniae (Roman)