Abstract

Archaeological excavations and survey within the presidential estate of Castelporziano near Rome, ongoing since 1983, have included a detailed investigation of the Vicus Augustanus, a small town on the Laurentine Shore, at a point about midway between Ostia and Lavinium. A new foundation of about 10 BC, located beside the coast road (via Severiana) and fronting onto the beach, it underwent extensive redevelopments in the second and early third centuries AD, then declined in the fourth century and was abandoned by the early fifth.

The lecture will  present the current state of the evidence regarding its size and composition, its possible functions in relation to the imperial estate of Laurentum and colonial settlement in the ager laurens, and the meaning of its imperial title.