It was stormed by the Romans in 293 BC. It lay at the point of junction of four roads: the Via Caecilia, the Via Claudia Nova and two branches of the Via Salaria.
There are considerable remains of an aqueduct, an amphitheatre and a theatre, all of which belong to the imperial period, while in the hill on which the village of S. Vittorino is built are some Christian catacombs.
Amiternum was the birthplace of the historian Sallust.