CARALIS
(Cagliari) Sardinia, Italy.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Lamarmora,
Itineraire de l'île de
Sardaigne, I (1840) 123; Fiorelli,
NSc (1877) 28Sf;
(1879) 160f; (1880) 105; A. Taramelli,
NSc (1909)
135
PI; E. Pais,
Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica,
I (1923) 351ff; D. Levi,
AJA 46 (1942) 1ff
PI; G.
Lilliu,
Studi Sardi 6-7 (1942-47) 252ff
I; id.,
Studi Sardi
9 (1950) 463ff, 474ff; P. Mingazzini, ibid. 10-11 (1950-51) 161ff
P; G. Pesce,
EAA 2 (1959) 255ff
I; J. A. Hanson,
Roman Theater-Temples (1959) 32-33.
D. MANCONI
