Above the town are several massive terrace platforms for supporting buildings; these may well belong to the Roman period, and the latter even to the Empire. The summit of the promontory, elevation , is reached by the old line of the Via Appia, which is flanked by tombs and by remains of an ancient defensive wall with circular towers, the so-called "Cinta Sillana" (once attributed to Theodoric, but dating from the first decades of the 1st century BCE). The summit is occupied by a massive terrace, supported by arcades of fine (traditionally, but wrongly, called the "palace of Theodoric") on all sides except the east, and commanding a magnificent view seaward over the coast and over the Pontine Marshes.