[SunkenCiv]

The international team of scholars and researchers at the ancient walls of Falerii Novi.

Credit: Emlyn Dodd

[1Old Pro]

a group of graduate students from the University of Toronto

One big road trip party. Am I going to have to pay their college loans? Oh, thank goodness it's Canada.

[jerod]

Wouldn’t it be easier to just watch Cleopatra or Gladiator?

We have plenty of insight into Roman life. Hell... We have an entire city encased in volcanic ash.

[Textide]

Thanks for the post. I like the idea of revisiting history with fresh, often unseasoned views. It’s a bad idea to just assume that the last guy that looked at a problem had it right. Sometimes iterating over trodden ground can lead to new insights. This is especially true in disciplines where there has been significant progress since the last review.

[Alas Babylon!]

Take a look at the images from the ground penetrating radar under these plain green fields:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/falerii-novi

[Larry Lucido]

I think that bridge used to go over a canal. It's the same one from this ancient photo.

[marktwain]

Why was it abandoned in 700 A.D.?

The timing is suspiciously close to the destruction of classical civilization by the Muslims.

Much of coastal cities were destroyed/abandoned because of muslim pirates at about this time.

A Muslim raid against Rome itself occurred in 846 A.D.

[Verginius Rufus]

Falerii Novi was founded after the Romans destroyed the original Falerii.

The natives spoke Faliscan, a language closely related to Latin.

If it was destroyed about A.D. 700, perhaps the Lombards were to blame. Or did it just fade away?