Listed 29 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SARDINIA Island ITALY" .
CARALIS (Ancient city) SARDINIA
Caralis or Carales (the plural form is used by the best Latin writers:
Karalis: Eth. Caralitanus: Cagliari), a city of Sardinia, the most considerable
in the whole island, situated on the S. coast, on the extensive gulf which derived
from it the name of Sinus Caralitanus (Karalitanos kolpos, Ptol. iii. 3. § 4).
Its foundation is expressly assigned to the Carthaginians (Paus. x. 17. § 9; Claudian,
B. Gild. 520); and from its opportune situation for communication with Africa
as well as its excellent port, it doubtless assumed under their government the
same important position which we find it occupying under the Romans. No mention
of it is found on the occasion of the Roman conquest of the island; but during
the Second Punic War, it was the head-quarters of the praetor, T. Manlius, from
whence he carried on his operations against Hampsicora and the Carthaginians (Liv.
xxiii. 40, 41), and appears on other occasions also as the chief naval station
of the Romans in the island, and the residence of the praetor (Id. xxx. 39). Florus
calls it the urbs urbiumn, or capital of Sardinia, and represents. it as taken
and severely punished by Gracchus (ii. 6. § 35), but this statement is wholly
at variance with the account given by Livy, of the wars of Gracchus, in Sardinia,
according to which the cities were faithful to Rome, and the revolt was confined
to the mountain tribes (xli. 6, 12, 17). In the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey,
the citizens of Caralis were the first to declare in favour of the former, an
example soon followed by the other cities of Sardinia (Caes. B.C. i. 30); and
Caesar himself touched there with his fleet on his return from Africa. (Hirt.
B. Afr. 98.) A few years later, when Sardinia fell into the hands of Menas, the
lieutenant of Sex. Pompeius, Caralis was the only city which offered any resistance,
but was taken after a short siege. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 30.) No mention of it occurs
in history under the Roman Empire, but it continued to be regarded as the capital
of the island, and though it did not become a colony, its inhabitants obtained
the rights of Roman citizens. (Plin. iii. 7. s. 13; Strab. v. p. 224; Mela, ii.
7; Itin. Ant. pp. 80, 81, 82, &c.) After the fall of the Western Empire it fell,
together with the rest of Sardinia, into the hands of the Vandals, but appears
to have retained its importance throughout the middle ages, and is still, under
the name of Cagliari, the capital of the island.
Claudian describes the ancient city as extending to a considerable
length towards the promontory or headland, the projection of which sheltered its
port: the latter affords good anchorage for large vessels; but besides this, which
is only a well-sheltered road-stead, there is adjoining the city a large salt-water
lake, or-lagoon, called the Stagno di Cagliari, comnmunicating by a narrow channel
with the bay, which appears from Claudian to have been used in ancient times as
an inner harbour or basin. (Claud. B. Gild. 520-524.) The promontory adjoining
the city is evidently that noticed by Ptolemy (Karalis polis kai akra), but the
Caralitanum Promontorium of Pliny can be no other than the headland, now called
Capo Carbonara, which forms the eastern boundary of the Gulf of Cagliari, and
the SE. point of the whole island. Immediately off it lay the little island of
Ficaria (Plin. l. c.; Ptol. iii. 3. § 8), now called the Isola dei Cavoli.
Considerable remains of the ancient city are still visible at Cagliari,
the most striking of which are those of the amphitheatre (described as extensive,
and in good preservation), and of an aqueduct; the latter a most important acquisition
to the city, where fresh water is at the present day both scarce and bad. There
exist also ancient cisterns of vast extent: the ruins of a small circular temple,
and nutmerous sepulchres on a hill outside the modern town, which appears to have
formed the Necropolis of the ancient city. (Smyth's Sardinia, pp. 206, 215; Valery,
Voyage en Sardaigne, c. 57.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
OLBIA (Ancient city) SARDINIA
Olbia (Olbia: Eth. Olbianos, Olbiensis: Terranova), one of the most
considerable cities of Sardinia, situated on the E. coast of the island not far
from its NE. extremity, in the innermost recess or bight of a deep bay now called
the Golfo di Terranova. According to Pausanias it was one of the most ancient
cities in the island, having been founded by the colony of Thespiadae under lolaus,
the companion of Hercules, with whom were associated a body of Athenians, who
founded a separate city, which they named Ogryle. (Paus. x. 17. § 5; Diod. iv.
29; Solin. 1. § 61.) The name of Olbia certainly seems to indicate that the city
was of Greek origin; but, with the exception of this mythical legend, we have
no accounts of its foundation. After the Roman conquest of the island it became
one of the most important towns in Sardinia; and from its proximity to Italy and
its opportune port, became the ordinary point of communication with the island,
and the place where the Roman governors and others who visited Sardinia usually
landed. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 3. 7, 6. § 7.) In the First Punic War it was the scene
of a naval engagement between the consul Cornelius and a Carthaginian fleet, which
had taken refuge in its spacious port; but was attacked and defeated there by
Cornelins, who followed up his advantage by taking the city, B.C. 259. (Zonar.
viii. 11; Flor. ii. 2. § 16; Val. Max. v. 1. § 2.) In the Second Punic War (B.C.
210) its territory was ravaged by a Carthaginian fleet. (Liv. xxvii. 6.) Under
the reign of Honorius, Olbia is still mentioned by Claudian as one of the principal
sea-ports of Sardinia; and the Itineraries give more than one line of road proceeding
from thence towards different parts of the island. (Claudian, B. Gild. 519; Itin.
Ant. pp. 79, 80, 82.) The name is there written Ulbia: in the middle ages it came
to be known as Civita, and obtained its modern appellation of Terranova from the
Spaniards.
Ptolemy distinguishes the port of Olbia (Olbianos limen, iii. 3. § 4) from
the city itself: he probably applies this name to the whole of the spacious bay
or inlet now known as the Gulf of Terranova, and the position given is that of
the entrance.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) SARDINIA
Napoli, a town on the west coast of the island of Sardinia, celebrated for its warm baths.
OLBIA (Ancient city) SARDINIA
A city near the northern end of the eastern side of the island of Sardinia, with the only good harbour on this coast; and therefore the usual landing-place for persons coming from Rome. It is now Terra Nuova.
SARDINIA (Island) ITALY
(he Sardo or Sardon; later Sardania or Sardenia). Sardinia,
a large island in the Mediterranean, is in the shape of a parallelogram, upwards
of 140 miles in length from north to south, with an average breadth of 60. It
was regarded by the ancients as the largest of the Mediterranean islands, and
this opinion, though usually considered an error, is now found to be correct;
since it appears by actual measurement that Sardinia is a little larger than Sicily.
Sardinia lies in almost a central position between Spain, Gaul, Italy, and Africa.
A chain of mountains runs along the whole of the eastern side of the island from
north to south, occupying about one third of its surface. These mountains were
called by the ancients Insani Montes, a name which they probably derived from
their wild and savage appearance, and from their being the haunt of numerous robbers.
Sardinia was very fertile, but was not extensively cultivated, in consequence
of the uncivilized character of its inhabitants. Still the plains in the western
and southern parts of the island produced a great quantity of corn, of which much
was exported to Rome every year. Among the products of the island one of the most
celebrated was the Sardonica herba, a poisonous plant, which was said to produce
fatal convulsions in the person who ate of it. These convulsions agitated and
distorted the mouth so that the person appeared to laugh, though in excruciating
pain; hence the wellknown risus Sardonicus (Sardonios gelos, see Suidas, s. h.
v.). Sardinia contained a large quantity of the precious metals, especially silver,
the mines of which were worked in antiquity to a great extent. There were likewise
numerous mineral springs; and large quantities of salt were manufactured on the
western and southern coasts. The Greeks called the island Ichnusa (Ichnousa),
from its shape, which suggested a footprint, and Sandaliotis as resembling a sandal.
The population of Sardinia was of a very mixed kind. To what
race the original inhabitants belonged we are not informed; but it appears that
Phoenicians, Tyrrhenians, and Carthaginians settled in the island at different
periods. The Greeks are also said to have planted colonies in the island, but
this account is very suspicious. Sardinia was known to the Greeks as early as
B.C. 500, since we find that Histiaeus of Miletus promised Darius that he would
render the island of Sardo tributary to his power. It was conquered by the Carthaginians
at an early period, and continued in their possession until the end of the First
Punic War. Shortly after this event the Romans availed themselves of the dangerous
war which the Carthaginians were carrying on against their mercenaries in Africa
to take possession of Sardinia, B.C. 238. It was now formed into a Roman province
under the government of a praetor; but a large portion of it was only nominally
subject to the Romans; and it was not till after many years and numerous revolts
that the inhabitants submitted to the Roman dominion. Sardinia continued to belong
to the Roman Empire till the fifth century, when it was taken possession of by
the Vandals.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CARALIS (Ancient city) SARDINIA
A city in S Sardinia on the gulf of the same name. It is mentioned
by Pausanias (10.17.9), by Claudianus (De Bello Gild. 521), in the Itineraries
(It. Ant. 80; Rav. Cosm. 5.26), and in the Peutinger Table. From prehistoric times
the hills that encircle the gulf were occupied by villages whose economy was based
mainly on hunting and fishing in the nearby pools. Little is known of the Phoenician
invasion of the area (7th c. B.C.), or of the Punic period. During the Roman domination
of Sardinia, Cagliari was at first only a fortified center. Under Sulla it became
a municipium, gaining full citizenship under Caesar (Auct. Bell. Afr. 98) when
it was inscribed in the Quirina tribe and became the most important city on the
island (Floro 1.22.35), a position which it still holds. The city was occupied
and partly destroyed by the Vandals, but regained vigor in Christian and Byzantine
times.
Evidence of Punic civilization is still visible in the upper part
of the city, in the Castello and Stampace districts. There are large cisterns
excavated in the rock, and a sanctuary of the Hellenistic age dating to the beginning
of the 3d c. B.C. in the Via Malta. The latter is one of the earliest examples
of the association of a temple with a theater. That the city's commercial and
civic life must have been concentrated around the pool of S. Gilla, which at that
time was still navigable and included in the port area, is evidenced by the ruins
of Punic houses and Roman houses from the 3d c. B.C. in the Scipione section and
by a deposit of terracotta figurines now preserved in the National Museum of Cagliari.
The necropoleis, situated to the E and W of the city on the hills of Bonaria and
S. Avendrace, contain pit tombs dug into the rock. In the Roman epoch the city
spread along the shore from Bonaria to S. Gilla. The acropolis was on the highest
level of the upland, now the Castello district. An aqueduct of the 1st c. A.D.
still carries drinking water to Cagliari from the mountain above Silliqua, passing
through Elmas, Assemini, and Decimo. Late necropoleis have been found between
the E slope of the Castello hill and the upland of Bonaria. In this area religious
communities were concentrated at the time of the Vandal and Byzantine incursions,
and here the nucleus of the basilica of S. Saturno was erected in the 5th c. A.D.
Important public monuments have been noted in the region of Bonaria. There is
a bath building, of which the caldarium with two pools is visible. It has mosaic
pavements in opus vermiculatum and the interior walls are faced with marble. An
amphitheater of the 2d c. A.D. is oriented NE-SW and dug into the rocky W flank
of the Castello hill.
Other remains include those of a fuller's shop in Viale R. Margherita
with a mosaic pavement from the Republican period; a section of the city wall
in Via XX Settembre; and cisterns in Via Ospedale, Via Oristano, and Viale Trieste;
as well as dwellings. There is a Roman house with a diningroom at Campo Viale,
and another (Villa de Tigellio) with a tetrastyle atrium and remains of mosaics
and architectural decorations. A large tomb excavated in the limestone bedrock
on Viale S. Avendrace is attributed to Atilia Pomptilla and dates to the 1st c.
A.D. The objects from the excavations are presently preserved in the National
Museum of Cagliari.
D. Manconi, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
METALLA (Ancient city) SARDINIA
In SW Sardinia in the territory of Fluminimaggiore, to the N of Iglesias,
on the Rio Antas. Surrounded by limestone quarries and lead and iron mines worked
since antiquity, the site seems identifiable with Metalla on the Tibula-Sulcis
road (It. Ant. 85; Ptol. 3.3.2.).
The most important monument has been completely uncovered. It is a
Roman temple, datable in its final form to the beginning of the 3d c. A.D., oriented
SE-NW and rectangular in plan. It is on a low podium and is entered by means of
a flight of steps on the SE. On the exterior, large square blocks of limestone
masonry are accurately worked and laid in perfectly regular courses. On the interior,
enough remains of the upper level to permit reconstruction of its plan. The pronaos
has four columns on the front and two on each side; the cella, in antis, has a
limestone pavement covered by mosaic in white tesserae with a band of turquoise-colored
tesserae delimiting a narrow quadrangular area in the center. The cella has two
symmetrical lateral entrances reached by steps; large squared blocks constitute
the foundation of pilasters built against the interior walls to support the roof
beams. From the back wall of the cella open two smaller cellae. The architectural
decoration includes Doric and Ionic capitals and carved antefixes and gutters
with leonine heads. The temple was dedicated to Sardus Pater, who according to
the literary sources was considered the son of Hercules and colonizer of the island
to which his name was given. In an earlier phase the temple honored a Phoenician
god sd, to whom, toward the end of the 6th c. or the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
was dedicated a sanctuary. The principal nucleus consists of an altar open to
the sky, surrounded by a series of courtyards and a large external enclosure entered
from the SE.
A few hundred meters to the SW of the temple are the ruins of a nuraghic
village whose modest dwellings, circular in plan, were later reused by the Romans.
Tombs from the Imperial age have been found in the locality called S. Marinedda.
The limestone quarries that provided the stone for the temple are at the N extremity
of the Antas valley on the slopes of Mount Conca S' Omu. A short distance from
the quarries is a rectangular room where fragments of votive sculpture have been
found. The material from the excavations is in the National Museum at Cagliari.
D. Manconi, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) SARDINIA
An ancient city on the W coast of Sardinia below Cape Frasca, near
the present church of S. Maria di Nabui. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (3.3.2) and
by the Itineraries (It. Ant. 84; Rav. Cosm. 5.26), which place it on the Via Karalibus-Othocam.
A milestone (CIL X, 8008) attests that Neapolis was linked with the colony of
Uselis. Cited by the agronomist Palladius for the richness of its fields (De Agr.
3.16), the city must have been in an area of large landed estates mainly engaged
in the cultivation of cereals, to judge from the numerous ruins of villas. Scholars
of the last century describe the solidarity and size of the private buildings;
the encircling walls; the well-paved roads; and the aqueduct, whose ruins are
still visible, which carried water to the city from Landa de Giaxi, eight Roman
miles away. Its territory must have bordered Cagliari's, as is shown by the mention
of "water from Neapolis" (Ptol. 3.3.7) in the territory of Sardara.
The city declined during the invasions of the Vandals and the Saracens.
Excavation undertaken in 1951 near S. Maria di Nabui brought to light
a small bath building of brick, with a caldarium to the S, an apodyterium to the
N, and a frigidarium. To the E are several modest houses and a Late Roman necropolis
with tufa sarcophagi and masonry tombs. At S' Anzrarza, near the sea, another
bath building of considerable size has an anterior gallery from which one enters
a large hall with a polychrome mosaic pavement.
D. Manconi, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
OLBIA (Ancient city) SARDINIA
City in the NE part of Sardinia, situated on a broad gulf (Ptol. 3.3.4).
The foundation of Olbia, which Greek tradition attributed to the Foci (6th c.
B.C.), is today attributed to the Carthaginians. With the Roman occupation Olbia
acquired considerable importance as a commercial center in trade with the continent.
In Imperial times the presence in the Olbian countryside of landed estates of
the gens Claudia and of Atte, concubine of Nero, who erected a temple to Ceres
here (CIL X, 1414), testify to its prosperity. The numerous main thoroughfares
converging at Olbia attest to the continued importance of the city in the 3d and
4th c. A.D. and to an intensity of life that persists in the recollections of
the historians (Claudi. de Bello Gild. 15.519, who speaks of the circuit walls
along the shore), and of the geographers (It. Ant. 81; Tab. Peut.). With the decline
of the Empire the city suffered upheaval from the invasion of the Vandals in the
5th c. A.D., but revived in the early mediaeval period as the capital of the governors
of Gallura.
The city was erected on the tongue of land projecting out into the
sea, where the remains of a Punic temple (3d-2d c. B.C.) have been found. The
Punic necropoleis, which were later reused by the Romans, contained ditch, shaft,
and coffin burials and extended to the NW, W, and SW of the ancient center. Of
the Roman walls, which were constructed of a double course of large isodomic granite
blocks and date from the 3d-2d c., there remains a stretch with a rectangular
tower and the opening of a gate into the Lupacciolu garden in Via R. Elena. On
the axes of the city, beginning on the cardo and decumanus, which correspond to
the modern Via R. Elena and the Corso Umberto, were built both private and civic
structures. Among them there remains a large bath complex (1st-2d c.), and an
aqueduct that brought water from the slopes of the Cabu Abbas mountains and carried
it to the city. The ancient port occupied a space slightly larger than the modern
seaplane airport. The Roman necropoleis extended over a large area in present
Fontana Noa, Abba Ona, and Joanne Canu, entirely encircling the city. The burials,
which in part reuse earlier building material, consist of ditch, shaft, and coffin
tombs. The funerary fittings, other than ceramic material, consist of bronze or
iron strigils, mirrors, and coins. The collection is preserved in the National
Museum at Cagliari.
D. Manconi, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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