According to Plinio il Vecchio, Amelia, that the Ancient used to call "Ameria", was born almost three hundred and fifty years before the foundation of Rome.
The statecy town walls , probably erected by local and skilled builders rather than powerful and legendary men of that time, is the proof of the importance that the city used to have in the antiquity.
It was certainly chosen as a roman municipality by the Lex Julia ( 900 b.C.),    and became a thriving commercial centre during the Imperial Age, when It was constructed a river port in the Tevere near Orte to join Rome.There are many testimonies of the Roman Age: the bronze statue of Germanico, a Roman military leader and Druso Maggiore's son, discovered outside the city walls in 1963 and preserved in the new Archaeological Museum; the Tanks, structured in ten underground cellars for the "water preserve" ( II century), that you can visit now tanks to a careful restoration.Following the fall of the Wester Roman Empire (476), Amelia suffered the barbaric invasions and the consequent pillages. It became a "comune", with an advanced socialorder, around 1000.
There are mani documents (Statues and Reforms) preserved in the Municipal Archives, which describe the town organization since XIII century.The"civic tower" is still overlooking the city, as a symbol of the achieved inipendence. Legend has It that Federico Barbarossa besieged and forced Amelia to surrender after ten days, because he was furious with the Umbrian cities tath had defeated him; in reality the event must be refer to Federico II in 1240. The Statute of the People was promulgated on the 22 of July in 1330, and then completated with another Statute in 1346, both examinated by cardinal Guerriero E.Albornoz. Many were the famous figures who were born or who lived in Amelia: Sesto Roscio Amerino, Mons.Alessandro (the first bishop resident in America, who helped Cristoforo Colombo to discover "the new world") and the descendants of noble families as Venturelli, Nacci, Farrattini, Petrignani, Casanacci, Mandosi and Geraldini.