Paestum presents an archaeological history of one of the best-preserved Classical cities of the ancient world. Founded by the Greeks in about 600 BC and well known today for its magnificent Greek temples and wall-painting, the city fell into the hands of indigenous peoples around 400BC, and under the sway of expansionist Rome in 273 BC. Loyal to Rome thought the Carthaginian wars, the city flourished in the years of the Roman Republic; but isolation from new trade routes and severe environmental problems led to a slow decline under the Empire. When the remnants of the population at last fled the malaria-ridden plain in the ninth century AD, the city lapsed into obscurity.