L'esule di Roma, ossia Il proscritto (The Exile from Rome, or the Proscribed Man) is a melodramma eroico, or heroic opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti.

Domenico Gilardoni wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's Il proscritto romano, in its turn based on Louis-Charles Caigniez and Debotière's Androclès ou Le lion reconnaissant.

The premiere united an impressive cast such as the tenor Calvari Berardo Winter, the soprano Adelaide Torsi and the bass Luigi Lablache, and it was a triumph.

After the first performances in the nineteenth century, the work was subjected to several changes: among the cuts was the scene in which Septimus was spared by a lion whose wound he had healed and who recognized him in the Circus Maximus.

The final scene in which Argelia rejoices in the happy outcome had also been added to respect the conventions of the time and to help Donizetti who, in accordance with the tradition of the day, wanted the work to end with an aria for the prima donna.

The work was brought to the stage in Madrid, Vienna and London and remained in the repertoire in Italy and abroad until 1869, the year when it was given last performance in the nineteenth century in Naples.

In fact, he has promised his daughter to Publius Argelia, but when he arrives to claim her, he is forced to admit that the young girl can not be found and he can not fully conceal his concern.

He asks from Argelia the documents that the young man has given her that proves his guilt, but she doesn't want her father to sacrifice his good name, and refuses him with tears.

The music is still much affected by the opera seria influence, the classic example of which is Rossini's Semiramide of 1823, although the instrumental passages with the accompaniment of English horn or bassoon obbligato and extensive scenes altogether often make us think about Donizetti's old master, Simon Mayr, or even of Gaspare Spontini's The Vestal (1803).

However, the dramatic intensity of the situations, as well as Donizetti's typical use of the flute and the attempt to remove the final prima donna's aria already announced the composer's mature works.