Punic Roman temple of Antas - Fluminimaggiore

The temple of Antas is located in the middle of the mountains of the Iglesiente, a region rich in metal ores, in one of it's green valleys.

Originally the temple was erected by the Punics to symbolize the bond between Carthaginians and Sards and indicated how much already the Punics valued the winning of metals in this area.

Under the Romans, who equally valued this metalore rich region, the temple was rebuilt with a typical roman architecture of which the remains can still be seen today.

The temple, in the valley of the river Antas that gave it it's modern name, was dedicated to the god-ancestor of the Sards, Babai, who was called Sid by the Punics and Sardus Pater by the Romans.

Whether the god of the Sards always has been called Babai is not reported in ancient sources. It was common practice in antiquity to assimilate local deities to Punic, Greek and later Roman gods, and they often lost their original native name.