Interamna Lirenas

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Interamna Lirenas
Italy Lazio location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Lazio
RegionLazio
Coordinates 41°25′39.356″N13°45′14.3424″E / 41.42759889°N 13.753984000°E / 41.42759889; 13.753984000
Typesettlement
History
Founded312 BC
Cultures Roman Republic
Site notes
Excavation dates2010–present
ArchaeologistsMartin Millett; Alessandro Launaro
Conditionruined
Public accessyes

Interamna Lirenas was an ancient Roman colony near the current Pignataro Interamna, in the southern province of Frosinone, central Italy. [1] [2]

Contents

Modern archaeological excavations at the site commenced in 2010. [3]

History

Interamna Lirenas was founded in 312 BC as a colonia of Latins in the ager casinas, on the route of the Via Latina. [4] It was situated at the confluence of the Liri and Rio Spalla Bassa rivers, whence the name "Interamna" (meaning "between the rivers"). [5]

Interamna Lirenas served as a military base during the Samnite Wars, leading to its destruction by the Samnites in 294 BC. [6] 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. [7]

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, [8] 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. [9]

Archaeology

The theatre at Interamna Lirenas Theatre Interamna Lirenas.png
The theatre at Interamna Lirenas

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. [10]

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). [11] [12]

An inscribed ancient sundial donated by Marcus Novius Tubula after his election to the exalted position of Plebeian Tribune in Rome was discovered in the ruins of the theatre in 2017. [13]

In December 2023, archaeology experts led by Cambridge University announced the discovery of remains, including those of a roofed theatre, market, and river port. [14]

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References

  1. ↑ Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/interamna-lirenas
  2. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Interamna Lirenas"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 683.
  3. ↑ Fasti Online "Interamna Lirenas" http://www.fastionline.org/record_view.php?fst_cd=AIAC_3604
  4. ↑ Salmon, E.T. 1955. "Roman Expansion and Roman Colonization in Italy." Phoenix 9.2:63-75.
  5. ↑ Purcell, N., DARMC, R. Talbert, S. Gillies, T. Elliott, J. Becker (6 February 2022). "Places: 432884 (Interamna Lirenas)". Pleiades. Retrieved December 17, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ John R. Patterson (7 December 2006). Landscapes and cities: rural settlement and civic transformation in early imperial Italy. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-814088-7.
  7. ↑ Alessandro Launaro (19 May 2011). Peasants and Slaves: The Rural Population of Roman Italy (200 BC to AD 100). Cambridge University Press. pp. 132–. ISBN   978-1-107-00479-5.
  8. ↑ Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/1.821742
  9. ↑ Almeroth-Williams, Tom (12 December 2023). "Roman 'backwater' bucked Empire's decline, archaeologists reveal". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  10. ↑ A. Launaro, "Interamna Lirenas: how special?" in A. Launaro (ed.), Roman Urbanism in Italy: Recent Discoveries and New Directions (Oxford, 2023)
  11. ↑ 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
  12. ↑ "Roman Colonial Landscapes (archived)". University of Cambridge.
  13. ↑ "Archaeologists uncover rare 2,000-year-old sundial during Roman theatre excavation". University of Cambridge.
  14. ↑ "Cambridge experts find Roman theatre in Italy dig". BBC News. 12 December 2023.

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