OLBIA
Sardinia, Italy.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Tamponi,
NSc (1890) 224ff; A.
Taramelli,
NSc (1911) 223ff
PI; E. Pais,
Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica, I (1923) 374ff; R. Hanslik,
RE
17 (1936) 2423; D. Levi,
Studi Sardi 9 (1950) 4ff
PI; D.
Panedda,
Olbia nel periodo punico e romano (
Forma
Italiae) (1952)
MPI; id.,
L'agro di Olbia nel periodo preistorico punico e romano (1954)
MPI; G. Pesce,
EAA 5
(1963) 634ff.
D. MANCONI
