Falerii Novi (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: New Falerii) was a walled town in the

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Ri ...

valley, about north of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and west of

Civita Castellana Civita Castellana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Viterbo, north of Rome. Mount Soracte lies about to the south-east. History Civita Castellana was settled during the Iron Age by the Italic people of the Falisci, who called it "F ...

History

According to Polybius and

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

, the

Falisci Falisci ( grc, Φαλίσκοι, ''Phaliskoi'') is the ancient Roman exonym for an Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely akin to Latin. ...

people of Falerii Veteres revolted against the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

in 241 B.C. Titus Manlius Torquatus was sent and during the first battle the Falerii defeated the Romans, but their cavalry was defeated. In the second battle the Romans defeated the Falerii. The slaves of the Falisci and half of their territory were seized, and Falerii Veteres was destroyed. The war lasted six days, with the siege of Falerii Veteres taking three days. The Falisci were resettled in a new town in a less defensible position. It was built on the left bank of Rio Purgatorio on a slight

volcanic plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions throu ...

five kilometers west of Falerii Veteres. The walls of the city, made from

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...

blocks, had fifty towers and nine gates. The town remained inhabited until around 700 A.D.

Excavations

In 1829, the theater was excavated and was discovered to have statues from the reign of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

depicting members of his family , with his wife Livia, and grandsons

Gaius Caesar Gaius Caesar (; 20 BC – 21 February 4 AD) was the grandson and heir to the throne of Roman emperor Augustus, alongside his younger brother Lucius Caesar. Although he was born to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, Augustus' only daughter, Gai ...

and

Lucius Caesar Lucius Caesar (17 BC – 20 August AD 2) was a grandson of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. The son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, Augustus' only daughter, Lucius was adopted by his grandfather along with his older brother, ...

. In 1903, the city plan of Falerii Novi was examined. In 2020, a

ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...

survey conducted by

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

universities showed a network of water pipes that notably run under the blocks and not, as is more usual, along the streets. The survey also mapped a market, temple, bath complex and a public monument buried underneath the town. From 2021, a new major excavation project begun across the site, which has so far revealed a market building, house, and streetside infrastructure from the mid-Republic to Late Antiquity.

Notable structures

The site contains the remnants of a Roman temple which is notable because it predates the settlement and because it is large, measuring roughly long by wide. The foundations of this temple were discovered by ground penetrating radar placing it several feet underneath the current excavations. An 11th Century Benedictine Abbey Church incorporating stone taken from the Roman structures is located near the west gate at Falerii Novi.

References

{{Authority control Roman towns and cities in Italy