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Castrum Novum (new fort) was an ancient Roman town now located in the municipality of Santa Marinella, to the north of Cape Linaro, ca. 60 km north-west of Rome Italy. It is located near Mount Guardiole, 1.5 km from the coast, where an Etruria settlement was found.Julia Daum, Trajan’s harbours on the Tyrrhenian coast, International Conference »Harbours as objects of interdisciplinary research – Archaeology + History + Geosciences« at the Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, 30.9.2015 ISBN 978-3-88467-293-8 ISSN 1862-4812
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It was founded as a colony in about 264 BC probably superimposed on an Etruscan settlementEnei et al.: G. Poccardi (eds), Castrum Novum. Storia ed Archeologia di una Colonia Romana nel Territorio di Santa Marinella, Quaderno 1 2011Livy 36.3.6 along with nearby Pyrgi and other coastal colonies in defense of the northern coast of the territory of Caere. The town had originally a rectangular plan in the form of a castrum (fort) of 120 x 63 m, surrounded by walls as its name suggests.Enei, F. - Preusz, K. - Preusz, M. (eds), Castrum Novum. Storia ed Archeologia di una Colonia Romana nel Territorio di Santa Marinella, Quaderno 4 2020 p 16 Since the 3rd century BC the colony was charged with protecting the coastal waters,Liv. 36, 3, 4-6 as did Pyrgi and Gravisca. A small harbour nearby would have held a few ships.
During the first years the inhabitants of Castrum Novum had plots of land of modest size (compared to Terracina, for example) as the plots were only 2 iugera, i.e. half a hectare,Livy, 8, 21, 1 which suggests that they were poor Romans attracted by the idea of owning some land.
The Via Aurelia was constructed in approximately 241 BC to serve the needs of Roman expansion, including swift army movements and quicker communication with Roman colonies and allowed Castrum Novum to become well connected to Rome and to the two military colonies of Cosa and Pyrgi.
On several occasions, the colony had to protest against Rome's will to take away some privileges. However, in 207 BC, it does not appear among the colonies that sent delegates to Rome to defend their military exemption after Hasdrubal Barca's invasion. But in 191 BC it took part in the revolt against the praetor Gaius Livy, who intended to impose naval levies on the maritime colonies when Rome needed soldiers for the Roman–Seleucid War.Livy 36, 3, 6
It was re-colonised perhaps under
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In the imperial era it grew into a town with a theatre, a curia, an archive (tabularium), an altar sacred to Apollo and an aqueduct, as inscriptions show. Probably in the Augustan age, L. Ateius Capitus had the curia and the tabularium restored, donating the theatre and its arcades to the city.
From inscriptions found in Santa Marinella we know of the existence of decuriones (members of the colony's senate), duumviri quinquennales (supreme magistrates of the city), Augustales (priests of the imperial cult), magistri vici (local administrators). Inscriptions inform about the foundation of public buildings by the Statilii and Ateii families: a porticus, theatre and a temple.CIL XI 3576ff
From the Republican age magnificent seaside villas were built nearby along the coast by patricians from Rome. Their most recent construction phases are from the Severan dynasty at the beginning of the 3rd century AD.Enei et al.: G. Poccardi (eds), Castrum Novum. Storia ed Archeologia di una Colonia Romana nel Territorio di Santa Marinella, Quaderno 2 2013 p 3
Numerous wall structures, marble mosaic floors, basins and colonnades from the imperial phase have been found recently. Masonry in opus reticulatum and brick, floors and sewers are visible in land exposed by erosion along the beach, for a long stretch below the modern stilt houses.
In 2022 a large and elegant theatre from the Imperial age which overlooked on the Tyrrhenian Sea was uncovered.Flavio Enei, A Castrum Novum nel teatro vista mare Dentro lo scavo, Archeologia Viva n. 218 – marzo/aprile 2023 pp. 8-15
The villa opened directly onto the Via Aurelia, which at this point was 5.3 m wide. Recent excavations have brought to light room from two main construction phases, i.e. the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century AD, One room still retains traces of a mosaic floor of black and white tesserae
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Intended for fish and shellfish farming and probably built at the end of the 1st century BC, the fishponds are divided into several rectangular tanks distributed around a large central circular basin of over 20 m in diameter. The mighty structure is built in cement with facings almost all in opus reticulatum with the exception of the arches connecting the tanks and the external wall of the central tank built in bricks. The internal depth of the tanks today reaches 2 m in some points, but probably would have been greater.
There are also traces of the openings and of the hydraulic devices which distributed the water in the farm and regulated its outflow. Three long submarine channels that extend from the side facing the sea ensured the water supply to the tanks, the constant purification of the water and the equilibrium of the temperature of the tanks. Towards the land, between the rocks of the coast, two symmetrical pockets branch off from the upper eastern corners of the fish tanks, perhaps for use by .
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