The onset of a deep decline of Claterna coincided with the transformation of the economic, social and political structures of the kingdom.
These dramatic changes occurred across the 3^rd century, a century that witnessed the beginning of the Barbarian invasions that reached the heart of north central Italy. Towns and territory were strictly connected, recent excavations in Claterna have brought to light some domus and houses that had already been deserted during the middle-kingdom, but partially systematic land surveys have also showed a relevant decrease of scattered settlements dating from the end of the 2^nd century.
The results were radical changes in the remaining settlements and the setting of large estates that controlled the territory.

Evidences of persisting urban activities were found in same towns near Claterna, these activities were mainly due to élite connected with the court of the nearby town of Ravenna, that became capital at the beginning of the 5^th century. No evidence of this kind has been found in Claterna where an irreversible process was triggered that left the town completely deserted between the 5^th and the 6^th century. Claterna is one of the very few examples in our region of urban discontinuity during the passage to the Middle Ages.
From its very onset the deserting process was tightly related to a deep discontinuity process that affected the land, settlements decreased and even the centurial net gradually disappeared. Infact the centurial net of this area is in noticeably worse conditions than those in adjacent areas.
Recent reports show that at the end of the Late Antique age, at the onset of the Middle Ages, some deserted lands were peopled again a the restructuring process began again.

2. Fibula of the Goths Age found in Castel S. Pietro Terme, near Ozzano.

Unfortunately at that point Claterna had almost completely lost its role of administrative and exchange centre.
As the town of Claterna went through a gradual decline new administrative and exchange centres began to form.
For example during the 5^th and 6^th century the furthest eastern territory of Claterna probably developed around a sanctuary (subject of recent excavations) that in its turn had been built on a previous exchange place: the “statio Silarus” near the Sillaro river, not far from the modern village of Castel S.Pietro. The sanctuary is among the first archaeological findings of Christianity in our territory. The rests of the foundations show a large three-aisle church, probably built according to the architectural examples of Ravenna.
Near the rests of the church were also found traces of Gothic people. These traces confirm the presence of war prone people in the area of Claterna. During the reign of Teodoricus, towards the end of the 5^th century the Goths settled in the greatest part of the Italian territory
According to some scholars the Goths were originally settled in the Baltic area, more precisely in Goetland, presently part of Sweden. Before reaching Italy the Goths lived for a long time in some areas in the north of the Black Sea and in the Balkans.
The Italian kingdom of Teodoricus The Great marked an age of improvements that actively involved many representative men of Roman culture in the administration of the kingdom.
After the Greek-Gothic war (535-553) Italy was won back by Giustianiano, but soon enough the arrival of yet another people of Germanic origin set the fate of the country. The Lombards headed by King Alboine crossed the Alps in 568 b.C. and definitely broke off the Italian unity.
The territory of Bologna became a sort of border land between the Germanic people and the Byzantines that still hold Bologna as well as the eastern part of the region (the Exarchate, and its capital Ravenna).
The arrival of the Lombards, (a population that during the first century was settled at the mouth of the river Elba and later in the 6^th century had moved to Pannonia) marks the beginning of the Middle Ages in Italy. From that moment onwards the economic, political and social conditions went through dramatic changes. At that point Claterna wasn’t an urban reality anymore, and its fragmented territory began to orbit around the nearby urban centres such as Bologna and Imola.