The Helvia Ricina Archaeological Area is located in the city of Macerata. In the archaeological area, which is located near Villa Potenza, finds from the prehistoric age document that the Ricinese territory must have been inhabited since ancient times. It was Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar of the 1st century. AD, to mention for the first time Ricina as a Roman city. Judging from the monumental remains of public and private buildings and works, and from the findings of tombstones and inscriptions, the inhabited area must have extended for about 60 hectares, mainly on the left bank of the Potenza river, the ancient Flusor. The city was located at the intersection of two important roads, the Nuceria-Ancona and the Salaria Gallica, which connected Ascoli to Jesi. Created as a town hall around the middle of the 1st century. BC, Ricina possessed important buildings, such as the theater, in the Julio-Claudian age, while in the second century. AD the houses with mosaics date back.