- chapter 12: Phoenician and Punic Sardinia –
Figure 12.10 Etruscan cup (kantharos) for drinking wine, from Tharros (early sixth century bc).Figure 12.11 Etruscan container for scented ointments (aryballos), probably from Tharros
(fi rst half of sixth century bc)inscription on stone, discovered in 1891 in the city of Oristano that was in ancient times
in the hinterland of the Phoenician city of Othoca and Tharros, and may be related to an
unknown sanctuary.
However, there is an exception, an important element of interference in the picture
now: the appropriation around 630 bc of the city of Olbia by the Greeks of Phokaia
(“Olbía” in Greek); this became the only center of Hellenic Sardinia (Fig. 12.12). Olbia
was originally a Phoenician settlement of the mid-eighth century bc, certainly important
for trade with Etruria, as the only independent Phoenician center in the Tyrrhenian Sea
north of Sicily, (i.e. not an enclave shared by other nations as in Greek Pithekoussai or
Nuragic Sant’Imbenia). It strategically overlooked the coast of Italy. This was an ideal
position to attract the attention of Phokaians as the fi rst base for their insertion into
the Western Mediterranean, an ideal starting point for the subsequent discovery and
settlement of the Celtic world (Massalia, Marseille, was founded around 600 bc) and
of Corsica (Alalíe, Aleria, founded around 565 bc). The Greek Olbia therefore must
be considered as a third actor, along with Phoenicians and Etruscans, in the scenario
of traffi c in the central Tyrrhenian Sea, especially as regards the conveyance of Greek
pottery to the island (Fig. 12.13), in addition to its arrival in Etruria from the Aegean
centers of production.
The situation thus far summarized undergoes a sudden change from the second half
of the sixth century bc when Carthage, now the most powerful Phoenician colony in
the Western Mediterranean, fi rst takes military action to gain control of Sardinia at the
expense of the Phoenician cities of the island, and then concludes a military alliance with
the Etruscan city of Caere in order to counteract the increasingly aggressive expansionism
of the Phocaeans. Both operations are successful. With the naval battle that the Greek
literary sources name for “the Sardinian Sea” (“Sardónion” = Sardinia) around 540 bc,
the Etruscans and Carthaginians forced the Phokaians to abandon Alalíe and Corsica,
which fall under the power of the Etruscans, and in subsequent years, the North African
city gains control of the whole of Sardinia, including Olbia which the Greeks therefore