— 365 — LA CIUDAD ROMANA DE COMPLUTUM (ALCALÁ DE HENARES) Sebastián Rascón Marqués * , Ana Lucía Sánchez Montes ** Abstract Complutum is the Roman phase of a two thousand years city, Alcalá de Henares, declared a World Heritage Site, and located at Madrid metropolitan area. Located in the plain of River Henares, it develops mainly on the fertile plains of this one. Before the Roman conquest, the territory was occupied by a pre-Roman group, the Carpetans. Today it is suspected that it was not an ethnic group, but a geographical classification already elaborated by the Romans, and archaeology is discovering that its settlement was organized not in cities, but in castros or medium- sized oppida. The city builders don´t were Carpetans, they were former Romans. Complutum is a city with acropolis. This took place on the hill of Viso, probably at the end of the Republican era. But the development of the main nucleus in the vega del Henares must be dated to the time of Augustus, with much of the infrastructure works in the middle of the first century AD. It received the status of municipium by the Edict of Latinity of the Flavians, around 74 AD. Due to undetermined historical circumstances, Complutum is the subject of unusual prosperity since the third century AD, which includes a general urban rehabilitation, a major remodeling of public buildings, and a very remarkable development of urban residences. Around 400 AD. the city collapses as an organized entity, although late-antique Complutum must have had a relative importance, with a bishopric and new and very dispersed nuclei of population. Urbanism and urban design Complutum had around a number of extensive suburban areas. Firstly, its acropolis, which already shows a first urban plot. Although also on the hill known as Alcalá la Vieja, there is a Roman public building, for which some have proposed a sanctuary dedicated to Hercules. However, the large suburban areas are in the vega del Henares: a large northern area with funerary and religious function, containing among others the important building of the so-called house of Hippolytus, a foundation of the family of the Anios, and the mausoleum of a doctor of the city, and immediately to the north spaces with agricultural or industrial functionality, the most significant being the fullonica of Camarmilla. A second suburban area is the corridor that develops in parallel with the River Henares, housing first the Campo Laudable, important late-antique space where the current cathedral of Alcalá de Henares is located, the area of Val-Afligidos and the Magdalena, with large suburban villas and spaces of industrial function. Focusing on the proper city, Complutum was mainly structured in a hypodalamic network into a great urban space, almost 60 Ha, organized in blocks of 30x30 m -1 actus- surrounded by its porticoes. An elaborate sanitation network of orthogonal layout, with sewers of various kinds, is well known. Here, we know several public buildings: the large building stands out occupying a block of 60x30 m, next to the forum, with an architectural plan of the first century AD.C., with three structures, a basilica, baths and a quadriporticus, which in the third century are converted into a single administrative space, in favor of the basilica. We also know an adivination space, the Auguraculum, two other thermal buildings, two monumental fountains and three urban sanctuaries, as well as a tetrapylon presiding over the access to the city from the west. Private houses We know especially the manor house, the domus, adapted to the plot of blocks of 1 actus. Up to nine houses have been able to be analyzed. Its designs are very regular, with axial systems and scenographic effects, combining * Servicio Municipal de Arqueología. Ayuntamiento de Alcalá de Henares. srascon@ayto-alcaladehenares.es ** Arqueóloga profesional. aluciasmontes@gmail.com Equipo “Ciudad Romana de Complutum”. Grupo de Investigación “Destierro y Exilio en el Mediterráneo Antiguo” de la UAH. Y PID2019- 107905GB-l00: CIL II: Nueva Edición.