Alba Fucens

Alba Fucens was an ancient town founded as a Latin colony in 303 BC by Rome, about 6.5 kilometers north of modern Avezzano in Abruzzo, central Italy, at an elevation of 1,000 meters near Monte Velino, following the defeat of the Aequi by Rome in the Second Samnite War. Settled with about 6,000 colonists to secure the Apennine corridor and Roman access toward the Adriatic, it withstood an Aequian counterattack the following year, stayed loyal to Rome during the Second Punic War, and later held important prisoners and played roles in the civil wars between Marius and Sulla and between Caesar and Pompey. The town was gradually abandoned in late antiquity after a sixth-century earthquake and was destroyed by Saracens in the tenth century, and its extensively excavated remains are regarded as probably the most important ancient site in Abruzzo.