one discovered in 1932 near the Mediaeval Castle, the other in Scanzano. A sanctuary, probably dedicated to Athena, was built in the locality of Privati. It then became part of the Nucerian federation, adopting its political and administrative structure and becoming its military port, although it enjoyed less autonomy than Pompeii, Herculaneum and Sorrento; in 308 BC, after a long siege, it was forced to surrender in the Samnite wars against the Romans. The earliest Roman evidence is coins from Rome and Ebusus found in the sanctuary of Privati dating back to the 3rd century BC probably brought in by merchants. During the Punic Wars Stabiae supported Rome against the Carthaginians with young men in the fleet of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, according to Silius Italicus who wrote: Irrumpit Cumana ratis, quam Corbulo ducato lectaque complebat Stabiarum litore pubes. The location of the early city of Stabiae is still to be identified but it was most probably a fortified town of some importance owing to the fact that when conflict with the Romans reached a head during the Social War (91–88 BC), the Roman general Sulla did not simply occupy the town on 30 April 89 BC but destroyed it. Its location is said to be delimited by the Scanzano gorge and the San Marco stream which partly eroded its walls. Roman Period The Roman author and admiral Pliny the Elder recorded that the town was rebuilt after the Social Wars and became a popular resort for wealthy Romans. He reported that there were several miles of luxury villas built along the edge of the headland, all enjoying panoramic views out over the bay. The villas that can be visited today come from the time between the destruction of Stabiae by Sulla in 89 BC and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. In 1759 Karl Weber identified and described part of the city near the Villa San Marco which extended over about 45000 square metres. He found five paved streets intersecting at right angles, the forum, a temple on a podium, a gymnasium, tabernae with arcades, pavements and small private houses. In the plain around Stabia was the Ager Stabianus, the land administered by the city and an agricultural area in which about 60 villae rusticae have been identified: farmhouses that vary from 400 to 800 sqm, from which intensive agriculture took advantage of the fertility of the soil,