Cornus

• a city on the western coast of Sardinia, Liv. 23, 40, 5 sq.

CORNUS (Κόρνος, Ptol. 3.3.7; Corni, Itin. Ant. p. 84), a city on the W. coast of Sardinia, called by Livy the capital of that part of the island. It was made their head-quarters and place of refuge by the Sardinian tribes who revolted against the Romans during the Second Punic War, but after the defeat of Hampsicora was besieged and taken by the praetor T. Manlius, B.C. 215. (Liv. 23.40, 41.) Ptolemy erroneously reckons it among the inland towns of Sardinia; the Itinerary places it on the road along the west coast of the island, 18 miles from Bosa, and the same distance from Tharros, These distances coincide with the site of the existing ruins, which are still visible on the sea-coast between Capo Nieddu and Capo Mannu, about 13 miles N. of Oristano. Numerous fragments of buildings, parts of an aqueduct, necropolis, and the walls of the port, are still standing. Carthaginian and Roman coins are found there in abundance. (Tyndale's Sardinia, vol. ii. pp. 300, 301.)

(Κόρνος). A town in the western part of Sardinia (Livy, xxiii. 40, 41).

An ancient city on the W coast of Sardinia, near S. Caterina di Pittinuri. Probably founded by the Carthaginians on a nuraghic settlement, it is mentioned by the geographers (It. Ant. 84; Rav. Cosm. 5.26). Livy (23.40) writes of the city in connection with the war in 215 B.C. between the Romans and Sardinians allied with the Carthaginians under the leadership of Ampsicora. Probably the Punic city was destroyed by the victors and became a Roman city with the rank of colonia (CIL X, 7915). It was linked by road to Tharros and to Gurulis Nova (Cuglieri) and was still flourishing in the 3d c. A.D. In the late period its center shifted toward the acropolis on the Corchina hill, where Late Roman remains still exist. The city was abandoned after the coming of the Vandals.

The site, identified in the 16th c. by Fara, had been sacked so many times that very little could be saved from the Roman necropolis. It is at su Columbaru and consists of ditch tombs and tombs with stone coffins. The material from the necropolis is preserved in the National Museum at Cagliari.

Around Sisiddu are the remains of a villa oriented NE-SW, and around Lenaghe are the ruins of a bath building.

A. Taramelli, NSc (1918) 28SffMPI; E. Pais, Storia della Sardegna e della Corsica, I (1923) 369; G. Pesce, EAA 2 (1959) 860f.