NEAPOLIS
Sardinia, Italy.
An ancient city
on the W coast of Sardinia below Cape Frasca, near the
present church of S. Maria di Nabui. It is mentioned by
Ptolemy (3.3.2) and by the Itineraries (
It. Ant. 84;
Rav. Cosm. 5.26), which place it on the Via Karalibus-Othocam. A milestone (
CIL X, 8008) attests that Neapolis was linked with the colony of Uselis. Cited by the agronomist Palladius for the richness of its fields (
De
Agr. 3.16), the city must have been in an area of large
landed estates mainly engaged in the cultivation of
cereals, to judge from the numerous ruins of villas.
Scholars of the last century describe the solidarity and
size of the private buildings; the encircling walls; the
well-paved roads; and the aqueduct, whose ruins are
still visible, which carried water to the city from Landa
de Giaxi, eight Roman miles away. Its territory must
have bordered Cagliari's, as is shown by the mention of
“water from Neapolis” (Ptol. 3.3.7) in the territory of
Sardara. The city declined during the invasions of the
Vandals and the Saracens.
Excavation undertaken in 1951 near S. Maria di Nabui
brought to light a small bath building of brick, with a
caldarium to the S, an apodyterium to the N, and a
frigidarium. To the E are several modest houses and a
Late Roman necropolis with tufa sarcophagi and masonry
tombs. At S' Anžrarža, near the sea, another bath building of considerable size has an anterior gallery from
which one enters a large hall with a polychrome mosaic pavement.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Spano,
Bull. Arch. Sardo 5 (1859)
20
PI; E. Pais,
Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica,
I (1923) 366ff; G. Lilliu,
Annali Fac. Lettere di Cagliari
21.1 (1953) 3 n. 1; G. Pesce,
EAA (1963) 388.
D. MANCONI
