Roman 'Backwater' Challenges History of the Ancient Empire's Decline—Study

A supposed "backwater" of the Roman Empire is challenging traditional assumptions about the ancient civilization's decline, according to a research project that has lasted more than a decade.

For 13 years, a team of archaeologists led by experts from the U.K.'s University of Cambridge has been investigating an ancient Roman settlement known as Interamna Lirenas, located in central Italy's Lazio region.

The results of this investigation—published Monday in an edited volume titled Roman Urbanism in Italy—indicate that the town, which was traditionally written off as a failed backwater, continued to thrive for longer than would generally be expected.

"What makes Interamna special is that we think it may not have been that special at all. It was of average size and occupied a middling position in the settlement hierarchy—it is therefore likely to be more representative of a large number of towns which dotted Roman Italy and the empire at large," Alessandro Launaro, a Cambridge researcher and author of the study, told Newsweek.

He went on: "Interamna Lirenas had long been assumed to have experienced a rather early decline, turning into a sleepy, backwater village—a town only in name—already by the end of the first century B.C. But what we revealed is the complex, monumental and articulate plan of a town, which peaked from the second century B.C. to well into the third century A.D. and continued to be occupied—although to an increasingly smaller extent—even afterwards, until its complete abandonment in the later sixth century A.D."

The findings at the site buck the generally accepted view of the empire's decline, according to the researchers. In the third century, the empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of invasion, civil war, plague and economic crisis, but problems had manifested even earlier.

"Italy is often understood to have experienced a precocious decline within the empire—political, economic and even demographic—already in the second century A.D., losing its prominence to the advantage of the provinces," Launaro said.

He continued: "We believe Interamna to have in fact adapted to those new conditions, building on a solid network of local political, social and economic relationships, whose existence preceded, continued and, to a point, outlasted the rise and fall of the Roman Empire."

"As this town was unlikely to be special, we think this may give us a better view of how other communities in Italy—and maybe across the empire later on, more generally—may have adapted and even thrived in the face of new and challenging conditions," he said.

For their research project, Launaro and his colleagues wanted to study the development of a Roman town and its hinterland over the long term, using a variety of archaeological techniques that ranged from ground-penetrating radar surveys to targeted excavations and pottery analysis.

The investigations enabled the researchers to produce an astonishingly detailed image of the entire town's layout, highlighting a wide range of impressive urban features, as well as revealing how the settlement resisted decline.

"By being comprehensively known—in terms of both plan and development—it affords a rare view of middling Roman towns, [which were] the majority," Launaro said.

Among the discoveries made at the site were the remains of an impressive roofed theater, market areas, warehouses, a temple, bath complexes and a river port.

"We started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it—that's very rare in Italy," Launaro said in a press release. "There was nothing on the surface, no visible evidence of buildings, just bits of broken pottery. But what we discovered wasn't a backwater, far from it. We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years."

Finding the remains of a roofed theater was a particularly noteworthy discovery because such venues were rare in Roman Italy. This particular theater, which may have been large enough to seat around 1,500 people and featured diverse marbles imported from across the Mediterranean, represented a significant upgrade on open-air structures. Evidence indicates that the theater was still in operation even as the empire was experiencing its period of significant decline.

"The fact that this town went for a roofed theater, such a refined building, does not fit with a backwater in decline. This theater was a major status symbol. It displayed the town's wealth, power and ambition," Launaro said in the release.

He continued: "The assumed lack of a theater here was taken as evidence of the town's decline. At nearby Roman towns, archaeologists saw the remains of theaters sticking out of the ground. The remains of Interamna Lirenas' amazing theater [were] there all along, just completely buried."

Another striking aspect of the town is the density of its occupation. More than 80 percent of the town's houses were small, interspersed with more than two dozen larger homes.

"We believe that this community thrived as a regional trade hub throughout its history and was able to play this role and benefit from it even when conditions across the empire were probably less favorable to Italy and the Italians than they had been before," Launaro told Newsweek.