picture of the site. The site does not seem to have been heavily populated, therefore, and can be interpreted as a focus for the rural population, which was monumentalized by some local elites, perhaps just the one family from the urban villa, trying to create a Roman settlement, but in order to understand the site more fully, a survey of the hinterland of Forum Novum would be appropriate. Whether Forum Novum was the "norm" or an exception is only something which will be discovered with further surveying of the Tiber Valley. References Roman towns and cities in Italy Archaeological sites in Lazio