page_title: History of Cagliari
section_title: Roman era
hierarchical_section_title: History of Cagliari / Roman era
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: STRADA SANT'EULALIA
context_section_description: Having become the island's now completely punicized main town, Krly became Roman in 238 BC when Sardinia and Corsica were occupied by the army of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 238 BC, in the aftermath of the First Punic War. The appearance of the town does not seem to have changed much during the long first period of Roman domination. In the following centuries Roman Karalis retained its role as a Sardinian metropolis. On the death of Caesar citizens remained faithful to his name and sided with his adopted son Octavian Augustus, first against Sextus Pompey, then against Antonio. After the victory of Octavian there was a long period of political calm and economic boom.
  Caralis (or Karales) was the capital of the Roman province of Sardinia and Corsica and was elevated to the rank of Municipium, a result of the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey when Caesar himself granted this status in gratitude to the city for its fidelity during the bloody war. All Caralitani obtained Roman citizenship and were enrolled in the tribe Quirina. The territory of the city included the campidano plain, likely becoming Sanluri.
  With about 20,000 inhabitants Caralis was the largest and most populous city of the island and the most important of the western Mediterranean basin of the Republic, and later of the Roman Empire. The city was equipped with important road links to the main towns of the island such as Sulki, with the coastal road and with that running through the valley of the Cixerri, Olbia and Tibula along the east coast, and Turris and Tibula along the road modeled on the current Carlo Felice, and finally a road through the centre of the island to the north coast. The town was also equipped with an amphitheater capable of seating approximately 10,000 spectators, temples, villas and aqueducts that supplied water, sourcing maybe from Domusnovas and Caput Aquas, near Iglesias. But the city was also endowed since the Punic time with numerous and large cisterns dug into the rock to collect rainwater and which can be seen today in various parts of the city. There were at least three cemeteries, one that was the same Punic necropolis of Tuvixeddu, another in the area around the churches of St. Lucifer and San Saturn, and Bonaria hill, and a third along the current Viale Regina Margherita, the burial site of the classiari or detachment of sailors of the fleet of Misenum, which was based at the city port. Along the main road out of the city to Turris, near the Punic necropolis, a mausoleum tomb dedicated to Attilia Pomptilla was built by her husband, Philip Cassio. Known as Viper's Cave, it is decorated with an impressive cycle of Greek and Latin CARMINA that can be considered the first literary work produced in Sardinia and surviving to the present day, the beginning of the literary history of the island.
  Among the main economic activities, a primary industry was salt mining from brine at a site between Caralis and Quartu, still undertaken today. This salt as well as grain, leather (tanned in establishments found near the port) and other products made in Sardinia were exported to other provinces of the empire.
  In the Roman period, although administered by the prefect of the province, the city maintained institutions of Carthaginian origin, such as the Sufeti, magistrates that were elected annually until the time of the granting of the "municipium" status. On that occasion, according to some researchers, a coin was minted with the names of the last two sufeti of the city.
  For the historian Florus, who lived between the first and second century AD, Caralis was already the city of cities of Sardinia in times of Punic Wars, and for the geographer Pomponius Mela, who lived in the first century, it was already a very old town. Claudian described the City of Caralis in the fourth century AD:
  Caralis, extends in length and flows among the waves on a small hill that breaks the opposing wind. In the middle of the sea as a port and a large shelter, protected from all winds, calm down the lagoon waters 
  Claudian describes the ancient city as ex
caption: Roman era road in the substratum of Saint Eulalia church
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