Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/930

 910 SARDINIA. sent as proconsul to the island, and after two years of continuous ■n-arfare he earned the distinction of a triumph, a sufficient proof of the formidable cha- racter of the insurrection. (Eutrop. iv. 25 ; Ruf. Fest. 4.) Tl.is is the last time we hear of any war of importance in Sardinia; but even in the time of Strabo the mountaineers were in the habit of plun- dering the inhabitants of the more fertile districts, and the Roman praetors in vain endeavoured to check their depredations. (Strab. v. p. 225.) The administration of the province was entrusted throughout the period of the Republic to a praetor or propraetor. Its general system was the same as that of the other provinces; but Sardinia was in some respects one of the least favoured of all. In the time of Cicero it did not contain a single free or allied city Cciuilas foederata) (Cic. pro Scaur. § 44) : the whole province was regarded as conquered land, and hence the inhabitants in all cases paid the tenth part of their corn in kind, as well as a stipendium or annual contribution in money. (Cic. 2)ro Balh. 18; Liv. xxiii. 41.) From the great fer- tility of the island in corn, the former contribution became one of the most important resources of the Roman state, and before the close of the Republic we find Sardinia, Sicily, and Africa alluded to as the " tria frumentaria subsidia reipublicae." (Cic. pro Leg. Manil. 12; Varr. R. R. ii. Pr. § 3; Valerius Ma.ximus also terms them " benignissimae urbis nostrae nutrices," vii. 6. § 1.) For this reason, as soon as Pompeius was appointed to the comm.and against the pirates, one of his first cares was to pro- tect the coasts of these three provinces. (Cic. I. c.) Among the eminent persons who at different times tilled the office of praetor or propraetor in Sardinia, may be mentioned the elder Cato in b. c 198 (Liv. xxxii. 8, 27); Q. Antonius Balbus, who was ap- pointed by Marius to the government of the island, but was defeated and killed by L. Philippus, the le- gate of Sulla, B.C. 82 (Liv. Epit. Ixxxvi.); JI. Alius Balbus, the grandfather of Augustus, who was praetor in b. c. 62, and struck a coin with the head of Sardus Pater, which is remarkable as the only one belonging to, or connected with, the island _Biogr. Diet. Vol. I. p. 455] ; and iI. Aeniilius Scaurus, who was praetor in b. c. 53, and was accused by the Sardinians of oppression and peculation in his govern- ment, but was defended by Cicero in an oration of which some fragments are still extant, which throw an important light on the condition and adminis- tration of the island. (Cic. pi-o Scaur, ed. Orell. ; Ascon. in Scaur.) In B. c. 46 the island was visited by Caesar on bis return from Africa, and the Sulcitani severely punished for the .support they had given to Nasidius, the admiral of Pompey. (Hirt. B. Afr. 98.) The citizens of Caralis, on the contrary, had shown their zeal in the cause of Caesar by expelling M. Cotta, who bad been left by Pompey in charge of the is- land. (Caes. B. C. i. 30.) Sardinia was afterwards occupied by Menodorus, the lieutenant of Sextus Pompeius, and was one of the provinces which was a.ssigned to the latter by the treaty of Misenum, B. c. 39 ; but it was subsequently betrayed by Meno- dorus himself into the hands of Octavian. (Dion Cass, xlviii. 30, 36, 45; Appian, B. C. v. 56, 66, 72, 80.) It was probably for some services rendered on one or other of these occasions that the citizens of Caralis were rewarded by obtaining the rights of Roman citizens, a privilege apparently conferred on theai by Augustus. (" Caralitani civiura Eoma- SARDIXIA. I norum," Plin. iii. 7. s. 13.) This was in the days of Pliny the only privileged town in the island : but I a Roman colony had been planted in the extreme N. at a place called Turris Libysonis. (Plin. /. c.) Two other colonies were established in the island at a later period (probably under Hadrian), one at Usellis, on the W. coast, the other at Cornus. (Ptol. iii. 3. § 2; Zumpt, de Col. p. 410.) Under the Roman Empire we hear but little of Sardinia, which continued to be noted chiefly for its abundant supply of com, and for the extreme un- healthiness of its clim.ate. In addition to the last disadvantage, it suffered severely, as already men- tioned, from the perpetual incursions of the wild mountain tribes, whose depredations the Roman go- vernors were unable to repress. (Strab. v. p. 225.) With the view of checking the.se marauders, it was determined in the reign of Tiberius to establish in the island a body of 4000 Jews and Egyptians, who, it was observed, would be little loss if they should perish from the climate. (Tac. Ann. ii. 85.) We have no account of the success of this experiment, but it would seem that all the inhabitants of the island were gradually brouglit under the Roman go- vernment, as at the present day even the wildest mountaineers of the interior speak a dialect of purely Latin origin. (De la Marmora, Voy. en Sard. vol. i. pp. 198, 202.) It is clear also from the number of roads given in the Itineraries, as well as from the remains of them still existing, and the ruins of aque- ducts and other ancient buildings still extant, that the island must have enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity under the Roman Empire, and that exertions were repeatedly made for its improve- ment. At the same time it was frequently chosen as a place of exile for political offenders, and nobles who had given miibrage to the emperors. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 62, xvi. 9, 17; Dion Cass. Ivi. 27; Martial, viii. 32.) Its great importance to Rome down to the latest period of the Empire, as one of the principal sources from which the capital was supplied with corn, is attested by many writers, so that when at length it was occupied by the Vandals, it seemed, says a contemporary writer, as if the life-blood of the city had been cut off. (Prudent, adv. Si/mach. ii. 942; Salvian. de Provid. vi.) During the greater part of the Roman Empire Sardinia continued to be united with Corsica into one province; this was one of those assigned to the senate in the division under Augustus (Dion Cass, liii. 12); it was therefore under the government of a magistrate styled proconsul; but occasionally a special governor was sent thither by the emperor for the repression of the plundering natives. (Id. Iv. 28; Orell. Inscr. 74, 2377.) After the time of Constantine, Sardinia .and Corsica formed two sepa- r.ate provinces, and had each its own governor, who bore the title of Praeses, and was dependent on the Vicarius Urbis Romae. (A'o<. Dign. ii. p. 64; Book- ing, adloc; Ruf. Fest. 4.) It was not till a. d. 456 that Sardinia was wrested from the Roman Empire by Genseric, king of the Vandals; and though recovered for a time by Marcellianus, it soon fell again into the hands of the barbarians, to wliom it continued subject till the fall of the Vandal monarchy in Africa, when Cyrillus recovered possession of the island for Justinian, a. d. 534. (Procop. B. V. i. 6, 10, 11, ii. 5.) It was again conquered by the Gothic king Tolila in a. d. 551 (Id. B.G. iv. 24), but was recovered by Narses after the death of tliat monarch, and seems from this period to Lave