Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "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.
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
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