For the butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

, see Suasa (butterfly)

Suasa (butterfly)

Suasa is a genus of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae....

.

Suasa was an ancient Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 town in what is now the comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Castelleone di Suasa

Castelleone di Suasa

Castelleone di Suasa is a town and comune within the Province of Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy.It is well known for the archaeological park of Suasa, an ancient Roman town....

, Marche

Marche

The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is located in the Pian Volpello locality, in the valley of the Cesano River

Cesano River

The Cesano is a river forming the border between the provinces of Pesaro e Urbino and Ancona in the Marche region of Italy. Rising from the Monte Catria, it flows for 62 km until reaching the Adriatic Sea near Senigallia....

.

History

Suasa was founded by the Romans in the early 3rd century BC, after the Battle of Sentinum

Battle of Sentinum

The Battle of Sentinum was the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War, fought in 295 BC near Sentinum , in which the Romans were able to overcome a formidable coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians, and their Gallic allies...

 (295 BC), in a territory inhabited by the Senones

Senones

The Senones were an ancient Gaulish tribe.In about 400 BC they crossed the Alps and, having driven out the Umbrians settled on the east coast of Italy from Forlì to Ancona, in the so-called ager Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena Gallica , which became their capital. In 391 BC they invaded...

. The town was crossed by a secondary trait of the Via Flaminia

Via Flaminia

The Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley...

 and by the Via Salaria Gallica, which connected it to Forum Sempronii (Fossombrone

Fossombrone

Fossombrone is a town and comune in the province of Pesaro e Urbino .-History:The ancient Roman colony of Forum Sempronii took its name from Gaius Sempronius Gracchus....

) and Ostra

Ancient Ostra

Ancient Ostra was an ancient Roman city situated between the modern town of Ostra and Ostra Vetere in the region Marche, Italy.It was inhabited from the 3rd century BC until the 6th century AD.-History:...

. In 232 BC

232 BC

Year 232 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lepidus and Melleolus...

 it became a prefecture and, in the first century BC, a municipium

Municipium

Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

.

Suasa started to decline from the 3rd century AD; in 409 it was run by Alarich's Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 during his march against Rome (see Sack of Rome

Sack of Rome (410)

The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, replaced in this position initially by Mediolanum and then later Ravenna. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a...

). It was abandoned in the 6th century after the Gothic War, the population moving to nearby settlements.

The remains have been axcavated by the University of Bologna

University of Bologna

The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...

 since 1987. The edifices found include:

• an amphitheater
• a theater
• the Coiedii domus
  Domus
  In ancient Rome, the domus was the type of house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. They could be found in almost all the major cities throughout the Roman territories...
  
  
• a late-Republican era domus
• the cardo maximum
• a necropolis
  Necropolis
  A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...