Ligures Baebiani, Archaeological site in Macchia district, Circello, Italy.

Ligures Baebiani is an archaeological site in the Macchia district of Circello, about 15 miles north of Benevento, on the road from Saepinum. It was one of two settlements formed in 180 BC for 47,000 Ligures Apuani deported from the area around Luna. Inscriptions found in its ruins include a large bronze tablet dated AD 101 from a public building in the forum, and an epigraph records the collapse of the bath building in a earthquake in AD 99 and its later restoration.

In 298 BC the consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus captured Taurasia and Cisauna, and the territory of Taurasia stayed Roman ager publicus. In 180 BC some 47,000 Ligures Apuani, men, women and children, were deported there from the area of Luna. Two pagi were formed, named after the consuls of 181 BC M. Baebius Tamphilus and P. Cornelius Cethegus. A earthquake in AD 99 collapsed the bath building of the pagus, later restored according to an inscription.

A bronze tablet in the Forum reveals a financial program Emperor Trajan established to help over one hundred children of the settlement. The tablet shows a remarkable system of early social support in the Roman world.

The site is reachable via old road routes from the north and sits in a rural landscape that surrounds the area. Visitors should expect uneven ground conditions and limited modern facilities at this location.

The site preserves inscriptions documenting an early social insurance system that managed thousands of sesterces. This system shows that Emperor Trajan introduced innovative welfare measures even in smaller settlements on the empire's periphery.