San Felice Circeo historical timeline

The human record here is one of the longest in Italy.

From 1937, the palaeontological researches of Alberto Carlo Blanc on the Circeo promontory brought to light, in the Grotta Guattari and nearby cavities, extraordinary evidence of Neanderthal presence — among it a ritually arranged skull, mandibles and infant remains datable to 50,000–60,000 years ago. English sources describe the Grotta Guattari as one of the oldest Neanderthal sites in Italy and state that remains of nine Neanderthals were discovered in it. The Grotta del Fossellone and the Riparo Blanc document uninterrupted occupation of the territory down to the Mesolithic, when groups of hunter-gatherers lived here between 9,300 and 7,500 years ago.

The classical town was called Circeii, and it was significant enough to be named in international agreements. In the treaty signed between Carthage and Rome in 509 BC, the Carthaginians agreed not to harm Circeii.

Its most striking Roman episode is one of defiance and its price. In 209 BC, during the Second Punic War, Circeii was one of twelve Latin colonies to refuse any further military contributions towards Rome. In 204 it was severely punished: it had to furnish double the greatest number of foot soldiers it had ever provided, plus 120 horsemen, all chosen from the wealthiest of the inhabitants and to be sent out of Italy. An annual tax was imposed as well.

It also served as a place of exile. The Roman triumvir Lepidus was banished here after his fall in 36 BC by his former colleague and future emperor, Octavian.

In the twentieth century the plain below was transformed: the submerged sands beneath the promontory were reclaimed during the fascist period, and in 1934 the founding of Sabaudia redrew the comune's boundaries.

In September 1975 the so-called Circeo massacre took place in San Felice Circeo — the rape of two young women, one of whom was also murdered — a crime that received significant media attention in Italy.