NORA
Sardinia, Italy.
An ancient city SW of
Cagliari on the promontory that ends in Capo di Pula.
It is mentioned by the geographers (Ptol. 3.3.3,
It. Ant.
85,
Tab. Peut.), Pausanias (
10.17.5); and Solinus (
Coll.
Rer. Memorab. 4.2) attributed the foundation of the city
to Iberians under the guidance of the mythical king
Norace. An inscription from the end of the 9th c. B.C.,
however, preserves a record of the city's founding by
Phoenicians coming from Cyprus. Like the rest of N
Sardinia, Nora fell to the Carthaginians at the end of
the 6th c. B.C., and in the 3d c. B.C. to Rome. Both in the
Punic period and in Roman Republican times Nora's
preeminence among Sardinian cities was unchallenged
until Cagliari assumed the official title of municipium
Iulium and became the residence of the governors of the
island. In Imperial times Nora was a municipium ruled
by quattuorviri iure dicundo and by decurions. The city
declined during the Vandal invasions and was last mentioned by the Ravenna Geographer (5.25).
The Punic necropolis, on the isthmus that joins Capo
di Pula with the island, contains pit tombs cut in the
rock and is rich in funerary material. Near the beach
behind the present church of S. Efisio, is a tophet from
Hellenistic times. The habitation zone extended along
the peninsula, with houses lining the present beach. On
higher ground in the center of the peninsula is the
square foundation of a temple dedicated to Tanit, and
lower down another sacred zone is indicated by a
foundation in squared masonry. Under Roman domination the plan of the habitation area became more precise,
although the irregularity of the street axes which follow
the routes of earlier paths persisted. Roman streets
coming from the various sectors converge toward the
Tanit temple. The forum is near the sea in the depression
that extends to the E of the cliff of Coltellazzo. The
theater (1st c. A.D.) is built of sandstone. Its cavea is
divided into four radial sections and two maeniani. The
orchestra has a mosaic pavement and the front of the
pulpitum is articulated in curved and squared niches. In
the hyposcenium are preserved four large jars used as
part of the acoustical equipment. Nothing remains of the
frons scaenae; the porticus post scaenam looked out on
one of the city streets. There are also a nymphaeum and
two large bath complexes. Only the major bathing establishments have been completely excavated. Although they were constructed on a grandiose scale and richly decorated, the plan is not clearly articulated. The rooms
are arranged in a circular pattern; and the frigidarium
the tepidarium, and the apoditerium have mosaic pavements. Along the shore to the NW were luxurious houses,
for example, the tetrastyle House of the Atrium. There
is a complex of sanctuaries of various periods at Sa
punta de su coloru, from which comes a Hellenistic
period votive stipe from the 2d c. B.C. An aqueduct
existed of which very little remains. The material from
the excavations is housed in the National Museum at
Cagliari.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Patroni,
Mon. Ant. dei Lincei 14
(1904)
MPI; G. Pesce,
Nora (1957)
MPI; id.,
EAA 5 (1963) 540ff; G. Maetzke,
Boll. del Centro per la Storia dell
Arch. 17 (1961) 53,56.
D. MANCONI
