article_snippet.sent: But the first layers of the city date to the time of Homer, according to local historian Mario De Marco.
article_snippet.sent: ‘Whenever you dig a hole, centuries of history come out,’ said Severo Martini, a member of the City Council.
article_snippet.sent: Under the emperor Hadrian, in the second century AD, the city moved two miles (3km) northeast, got a theatre and an amphitheatre and was connected to the Hadrian Port.
article_snippet.sent: After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city was sacked by king Totila in the Gothic Wars.
article_snippet.sent: After that the city was conquered once again by the Byzantines in 549 and remained part of the Eastern Empire despite some small conquests.
article_snippet.sent: After the Normans arrived in the 11th century, Lecce grew in commercial importance again, having been an important trading post in Roman times.
article_snippet.sent: It grew rich and became one of the most important cities in southern Italy, evidenced by It many impressive Baroque monuments.
article_snippet.sent: Plague broke out in the 17th century and the city was briefly home to Allied fighters fighting the Nazis in the Second World War.