|  This city has ancient origins and one of the most unfortunate years to remember is 215 B.C., when the city was destroyed by Hannibal. The people from San Marzano (Sammarzanesi) did not lose heart and, exploiting the excellent geographical position, the city became a landing place for numerous hulls, increasing the commercial flow.
Many years later, in 63 A.C., under the guidance of Nero, a tremendous earthquake destroyed the village again. Following this event, the Roman senators decided to send various senatorial families there, among which the Marcia family, who the city was named after.
Life in San Marzano passed by quietly until it decided, with other communes, to take part in an insurrection against the Lord of Sarno, who had ordered that the flow of the river be deviated to supply his mills.
On the 16th of December 1631, the eruption of Vesuvius, followed by a violent earthquake, destroyed most of the city. Later on, a few years after its reconstruction, the First World War broke out and many Sammarzanesi died.
San Marzano overtook at best these years of crisis but another catastrophe hit the city on 23rd of November 1980, when a terrible earthquake hit Campania and Basilicata, causing around 3000 deaths and more than 10,000 injuries, many of them in San Marzano. The last tragedy to hit the city, fortunately only slightly, was in 1998 with a mountain slide that mainly destroyed Sarno.
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