Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient, deserted and razed city in Italy that the Romans destroyed after its people defied Rome over 2,000 years ago.
The city, called Fregellae, was completely ruined after its people rebelled against Roman rule. The destruction was so severe that no one lived there for more than 170 years.
Eventually, the area was turned into a dumping ground for trash. Fregellae is located around 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of Rome, and the ruins date back to 125 B.C., when Roman armies seized and destroyed the city.
The exact cause of the rebellion remains unclear. However, archaeologists believe it may have started because the people of Fregellae wanted full Roman citizenship.
At the time, they only had “second-rate” citizenship, which gave them fewer rights, especially when it came to owning public lands. This issue was part of a larger dispute that later led to the Social War from 91 to 87 BC. During this conflict, many of Rome’s allies in Italy demanded, and eventually received, full citizenship.
#LEIZAWorldwide #Archaeology Dive into the history of #Fregellae, an ancient city in #Italy destroyed by the Romans in 125 BC. Our research team braved over 40°C this summer to uncover the social and economic life before and after the city's fall. #RomanHistory #Research 1/6 pic.twitter.com/bsyIs30Hl7
— Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) (@leizarchaeology) September 17, 2024
Few historical records exist from the time of the Fregellae revolt, making it difficult to know exactly what happened. Dominik Maschek, a Roman archaeology professor at the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology and Trier University in Germany, explained that archaeology offers the best clues to uncover the story.
“It is only mentioned in two or three sources,” Maschek told Live Science. “We hear about the siege, they tell us these people rebelled against the Romans, but we don’t know why.”
Excavation of the Roman villa in the 1980s
Italian archaeologists first began excavating the site in the 1980s, uncovering murals, floor mosaics, houses and public baths, according to Dominik Maschek.
For the past three years, Maschek and a team of researchers from Germany, Italy and Switzerland have been excavating a villa located at the edge of the ancient city. Last year, they also discovered the remains of a Roman military camp nearby, which was surrounded by a fortified wall and a moat for protection.
At the villa site, archaeologists found large pottery vessels used for storing farm produce. These, along with ancient seeds discovered at the site, suggest that the villa was an agricultural hub producing wine, fruit and grain, likely for export to other regions and possibly overseas, according to Maschek.
Similar Roman villas of this size indicate that up to 50 people may have worked there, many of whom were likely enslaved.
A layer of fire damage reveals that the villa and its crops were destroyed at the same time as the nearby city. This conclusion is further supported by pottery fragments dating back to the time of the revolt, which serve as a “smoking gun” for the event.
