Pierced spherical fictile weights found within the territory of Giulianova testify that it had been inhabited ever since the Neolithic.

However the origins of the town go back approximately to 290 B.C, when the Romans constructed the colony of Castrum Novum on a previous settlement.

The centre rapidly became an important commercial and military harbour and channel as well as a strategical junction for dealing with further areas of the Adriatic coast as well as with inland parts of the territory of Ascoli.

The colony remained faithful to Rome during the Punic wars and was later assigned to the Mecia tribe. It was then destroyed as a consequence of the Barbarian invasions.

Large stretches of a Roman mosaic pavement made of small tesserae, black fascia and large travertine ashlars of unknown function have been dug up south from the cemetery of Giulianova. Numerous fragments of Campanian ceramics have been found as well. These features probably belonged to a Roman villa.

Many further testimonies seem to confirm the importance of the town in Roman times: lapidary inscriptions, column shafts, capitals ornamented with bice blue, marble slabs adorned with sculptures and arabesques, a cave (probably an opus signinum, aggregate earthenware plaster), ancient burials, oil lamps and amphoras, coins, figurines and idols

The wall layers in the subsoil and most of all a coin treasure partly fused and partly reddened by fire which was excavated in 1828, lead to believe that the town was devastated more than once.

Information taken from the Rete della Cultura Abruzzese - Regione Abruzzo (Sezione Siti Archeologici)