TURRIS LIBYSONIS
(Portocorres) Sardinia, Italy.
An ancient city on the N coast to the E of the
Asinara, at the mouth of the Rio Turnitano. The city
was mentioned by the geographers (Ptol. 3.3.5,
It. Ant.
83,
Tab. Peut.). Despite the fact that the name recalls
Libya, no archaeological data to the present time has
verified any connection with the Punic world. The city
became a colonia civium Romanorum and was inscribed
in the Collina tribe under Caesar (
CIL X, 7953). One
of the most important cities of Sardinia, it was connected
by a major road with Carales from the second half of
the 1st c. B.C. onward. A record of the naviculani Turritani in the Piazzale delle Corporazioni at Ostia is evidence of its commercial importance. In the 5th c.
the city was, like the rest of the island, seized by the
Vandals; and ca. 1000 it was abandoned, eventually to
revive in late mediaeval times.
Constructed on the axes of the cardo and decumanus,
the city seems to have had a homogeneous plan. During
partial exploration of the site, several public and private
buildings have been discovered near the present railroad station. Among these is a large bath building, popularly known as the Palazzo di Re Barbaro. The original plan, superimposed on earlier buildings, dates
from the end of the 1st c. B.C. It is arranged axially,
with the entrance to the W and the caldanium to the
E, and it is possible to distinguish various phases in its
construction. The earliest part is brick, to which is added
a part in striped technique and a part in irregular
masonry. The caldarium has remains of interesting
mosaics. Pilasters at the corners sustain cross vaults.
Above the rooms is a reservoir for the water that served
the caldarii below. The suspensurae are constructed of
blocks of local calcareous stone. Nearby are remains of
other bath buildings of similar construction. A Roman
bridge of the 1st c. A.D. over the Rio Mannu is relatively
well preserved. It has seven arches, of decreasing spans,
and is constructed of regular blocks of limestone, the
arches framed by mouldings. A few remains exist of an
aqueduct (1st-2d c.) that carried water from the valley
of S. Martino near Sassari. The modern port has completely obliterated the ancient one. The remains of Roman buildings are on the slope of the upland between Rio Turnitano and S. Gavino, a few meters from the
ancient shore line. There is part of a peristyle paved
with squared blocks of limestone, bordered on the E
side by a portico with marble columns and a polychrome
mosaic pavement superimposed on an earlier pavement
of marble slabs. In the same area is the large marble base
of a statue of Valenius Domitian, procurator of Constantius Chlorus (305-306). Inscriptions record the existence of a temple dedicated to the goddess Fortuna, a basilica, a tribunal, and a catacomb. Marble statues
and sarcophagi are in the National Museum of Sassari.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Pais,
Storia della Sardegna e della
Corsica, I (1923) 381ff; M. Pallottino,
Studi Sardi 7
(1947) 228ff; G. Lilliu, ibid. 8 (1948) 429ff; V. Mossa,
ibid. 14-15 (1955-57) 373ff
PI; G. Maetzke,
Boll. del
centro per la Storia dell'Architettura 17 (1961) 54f.
D. MANCONI
