The people of Moroni were the Nephites of the city of Moroni, whose foundation was laid in the twentieth year of the judges by the east sea, on the south by the line of the possessions of the Lamanites (Alma 50:13). Not sufficiently strong when Amalickiah came into their borders by the seashore, they were driven with many slain, and the city with all its fortifications was taken; those who fled came to the city of Nephihah (Alma 51:22-24). The land was not recovered until the closing campaign of the war, when the armies of Ammoron were hemmed into the land of Moroni (Alma 62:25) and, after Teancum slew their king, driven out of the land by Moroni (Alma 62:32-38).
Three generations later the rebuilt city met the judgment of the great destruction: “the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned” (3 Nephi 8:9) — the first city named by the voice of Christ out of the darkness (3 Nephi 9:4).