From the imperial villa to the castra. The Military camp of the legio II Parthica in Albano Laziale, the previous use of the territory, its surroundings and its transformation into an episcopal see

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Alexandra Busch
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: from 2008 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 71636286

Albano Laziale, a town situated 25 km southeast of Rome on the Via Appia, underwent a unique transformation process between the late Republican Period and Late Antiquity. In a landscape that was dominated by large Republican villas, the emperor Domitian built a vast residence in the 80s of the 1st century AD. Only a century later the first and only permanent legionary camp in Italy was established for the legio II Parthica on the outskirts of the imperial villa. In the immediate vicinity of the camp a settlement with large public buildings developed, which turned at the beginning of the 4th Century AD into the episcopal see of one of the oldest and largest dioceses in Italy. The two most important changes in the development of Albano were the transformation from the imperial villa to a legionary camp and from a garrison to the episcopal see. While the establishment of the military camp for a regular legion at the gates of the Empires capital marked a crucial turning point in the history of Rome, the promotion of the canabae legionis to the episcopal see is determining the development of the town till today. The primary scope of the project is to improve our understanding of the genesis of Albano applying a wide range of landscape archaeological methods, archival research and the study of literary and epigraphic sources. The dependencies between the development and design of the individual phases and the previous ones will be analyzed as well as the characteristics of the respective phases of use and the interdependencies of the various settlement areas within each chronological horizon.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Institution: Curia Vescovile di Albano Laziale; Università di Roma "La Sapienza" ; Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia ; Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità; Universität Basel; Institut für prähistorische und naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie (IPNA); Museo Civico di Albano Laziale; Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio