Perched on a plateau overlooking the Pontine plain, ancient Norba captivates visitors with its dramatic, commanding position. Classical sources mention it as early as the 5th century BC among the Latin cities opposing Rome. Its destiny shifted, however, after the Foedus Cassianum, the peace treaty that ended hostilities with the rising power on the Tiber. In 492 BC, a nova colonia (new colony) was sent to Norba with an explicitly strategic role: to serve as a stronghold in the Pontine territory in response to the growing threat of the Volsci. Throughout the centuries, Norba remained a steadfast ally of Rome — loyal even in 209 BC, during Hannibal’s invasion, when many other Italian cities refused to support the Republic. Its name reappears dramatically during the civil war between Marius and Sulla. Siding with Marius, Norba became the last city to fall in 81 BC, when its inhabitants chose death rather than surrender. Abandoned thereafter and only sporadically reoccupied, Norba stands today like a place suspended in time, a city frozen in time, where the urban layout and traces of daily life from the beginning of the 1st century BC can still be perceived across the landscape.
Gallery
