Nota sul centro romano di Valentia in Sardegna

FLORIS, PIERGIORGIO

2009-01-01

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Abstract

In the first half of the paper are taken into account the data pertaining the time of foundation, juridical status and composition of the population of the Roman settlement of Valentia in Sardinia (Nuragus, Ca). The toponym Valentia isn’t directly certified by the ancient sources, but it can be gathered by the ethnic noun Valentini (Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy). The settlement, located in a strategic geographical area for the controlling of the island’s mountain region from the South, was probably established in the second century BC and the initiative of its founding is maybe to be assigned to Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, L. Aurelius Orestes or, most probably, to M. Caecilius Metellus. The term “oppidum” that by the witness of Pliny the Elder must be ascribed to Valentia allows to rule out the possibility that at the end of the first century BC the settlement had some form of Roman legal status. The form of organization with which the community was founded is unknown; it can be thought, however that at the beginning there were individuals different for personal legal statutes and ethnic origin and this seems confirmed by the personal names testified by the epigraphic evidence of the imperial period. In the second half of the paper are taken into exam the eight inscriptions, one of them unpublished before, that can be attributed to the settlement.