Salerno was founded as Roman colony in 197 BC. and lived for centuries.
Iremains of the Roman city lie under the houses of the Old Town, and some valuable works are preserved in the Archaeological Museum.
The area of Salerno has been inhabited since ancient times: ideal place, with the river and the sea near from the Paleolithic there are settlements discovered by archaeologists.
In the Vi century B.C. He’s the one Etruscan they founded a city, probably by the name of Irna, whose remains are in the Fratte district, with a necropolis, the most valuable and important objects and remains are preserved in the Archaeological Museum.
Ma Salerno was founded by Romansas colony in 197 BC., in a strategic area, to protect the Sele valley inhabited by the Piceni, here deported for their alliance with Pirro and then with Hannibal. The city, protected by the mountains and by the sea on three sides, had a wide plain from which any enemies had to cover, past the Irno, a large outdoor space to reach the walls, in a position that covered at least in part the present Old Town. The city was crossed by the Ania – Popilia street, which united Capua to Regium, so it was also inside the commercial traffics, which, united to the sea port, made it probably rich.
The medieval city has grown on the remains of the ancient Roman city, so it is difficult today to reconstruct the places and the spaces; digging in the foundations of the houses and public spaces of the Old Town there are finds that testify to the vestiges of the ancient city.
BetweenPalazzo Fruscione and thePalatine Chapelthere are, well visible, the remains of the spa, and other remains are in Vicolo della Neve. Then there are the urbanistic traces, the Forum that probably weighed on the current Abate Conforti square, and still can be recognized the shape of the Roman square.
Piazza Flavio Gioia – the “Rotonda” – was attributed to the place of the Theatre, and although today the hypothesis is discarded by archaeologists, its round shape with a view of the sea, makes the localization suggestive. There is then, preceded by a beautiful portico of columns of re-use,
the Temple of Pomona, adjacent to the Bishop’s Palace. The most interesting works are perhaps made up of sarcophagi that are today
in the atrium of the Cathedral, some valuable, and used again in the Middle Ages as tombs of contemporaries.
The Bronze of Apollo preserved in the Archaeological Museum is the most beautiful example of the Roman city and represents one of the symbols of the city of Salerno.