The Roman city of Sulci was located, like the pre-existing Punic city, in the place of today's Sant'Antioco, in the N/E part of the homonymous island of Sulcita, just S/O of Sardinia. It is possible to visit the MAB F. Barreca Archaeological Museum, the tofet, the Savoy fort, the underground village, the Ethnographic Museum, the Necropolis and the Acropolis.
The Roman conquest of Sardinia, which took place in 238 BC, determined a general political, economic and administrative reorganization of the island. However, this phenomenon did not occur suddenly, but experienced a progressive development, especially in the first phase, the one relevant to the republican age.
It is in the Phoenician population centers, which then passed under Punic and then Roman control, that there is the clearest evidence of the graduality of the process of Romanization of Sardinia. In many cases, in fact, the urban structure of these centers did not undergo, during the Republican era, substantial changes.
What has been said also applies to Sulky. A particularly striking example of the phenomenon comes from the Punic necropolis (VI-IV century BC), located in the upper part of the city. The necropolis, consisting of numerous chamber tombs dug into the rock and preceded by a stepped “dromos”, was in fact widely reused in Roman times.
However, this does not mean that during the republican phase, no type of building intervention was carried out in Sulci. As proof of this fact, in the immediate vicinity of the Savoy fort, in the area of the so-called acropolis, some wall structures from the second century BC have been found. These highlight a block base on which a colonnade was set up, of which nine columns are preserved. The structure was paved twice: first in “opus signinum” (cocciopesto flooring in which small white tiles were regularly inserted); a second in darker cocciopesto, which covered the previous floor. It is a pesudo-peripteral temple “sine postico” (surrounded by columns in all its parts except the back one) that was accessed through a monumental ramp. The temple, in its overall layout, typologically recalls similar medium-Italic structures of Hellenistic descent.
Another structure relevant to this phase is the monument known by the name of “Sa Presonedda”: a small mausoleum with a pyramidal structure, in large square blocks, dating back to the second century BC.
As was also the case in other Sardinian centers, the turning point in the urban history of Sulci is placed in the transition from the republican phase to the imperial phase, and in particular the moment (probably to be placed around 48 AD) when Sulci acquired the rank of “Municipium” and its citizens were enrolled in the tribe Quirina.
The excavation of the Cronicario area has revealed two blocks of houses built in the first century AD and abandoned about a century later. The city forum had to be located on the site of Su Narboni and had to be equipped with a 'capitolium' (not yet identified at the moment) and an 'Augusteum', to which the discovery of various sculptures depicting characters of the Julio-Claudia 'gens' seems to refer. In 1984, the remains of the 2nd century AD amphitheater were identified, located on the S/E slopes of the hill where the acropolis and the temple were.

History of excavations
The first mentions of the antiquity and importance of the Sant'Antioco site date back to 1580, by Canon Giovanni Fara. After him, many other scholars, including Della Marmora and Lo Spano, became interested in the site. The first scientific archaeological excavations were conducted by Antonio Taramelli, who published the report of his research activity with rigor and precision in the period between 1903 and 1921. Subsequent interventions were conducted by Salvatore Puglisi, Paolo Mingazzini and Giovanni Lilliu. In 1956, systematic investigations began. Gennaro Pesce discovered tofet in the town significantly known as “Sa Guardia de is Pingiadas” and extended the investigation to the Punic necropolis. Subsequent interventions, starting in 1967, were conducted by Ferruccio Barreca in the area of the Punic necropolis. At the end of the 80s, Piero Bartoloni, Paolo Bernardini and Carlo Tronchetti investigated an area of the town from the first century AD (Chronicario).

Bibliography
P. Bartoloni, Sulcis, series “Itineraries”, 3, Rome, Institute of Polygraphy and State Mint, 1989; C. Tronchetti, S. Antioco.
Sassari, C. Delfino, 1989 (Archaeological Sardinia. Guides and itineraries; 12);
P. Meloni, Roman Sardinia, Sassari, Chiarella, 1990;
S. Angiolillo, The Art of Roman Sardinia, Milan, Jaca Book, 1998;
A. Mastino, History of Ancient Sardinia, Nuoro, Il Maestrale, 2005.