In 227 BC, Sardinia became a Roman province ruled by a praetor. Then began the spread of typical Roman customs and traditions, their language, religion, and even the lifestyle of the wealthy classes.
The Romanization of Sardinia was aided by the establishment of a very efficient road system that crossed the island. With the introduction of Latin, the language of the Sardinian people underwent profound transformations, so much so that, among the Neo-Latin languages, Sardinian is the one that most clearly retains its characters.
Regarding worship and deities worshipped on the Island, the inland areas retained the prehistoric nature-inspired religiosity, but in the rest of the Island The worship of Nuragic deities was replaced by that for Roman deities. Probably over a Sacred Well dedicated to the cult of the Waters present in the Sardara Baths, a temple was built dedicated perhaps to Jupiter, Juno or Diana, near which the Thermae were built. They were the Aquae Neapolitanae mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy in the Itinerario Antoniniano, a record of stations and distances between locations on the various roads of the Roman Empire, dated to the early 3rd century. Aquae Neapolitane was indicated along the road from Othoca (today’s Santa Giusta) to Karalis.
In ancient Rome, Thermae served a variety of functions; in addition to bathing facilities they included gymnasiums, libraries, and meeting and recreation spaces. Around the Bath of Aquae Neapolitanae stood a town whose importance is documented by the extent of the Roman necropolis located around the Arigau nuraghe, the presence of two brick kilns and a section of a Roman road found near the church of Santa Mariaquas.
The essential structures of the ancient Roman Thermae stood the test of time and were used throughout the Middle Ages. The judges of Arborea also went there periodically and probably had a thermal bath reserved for the giudicale family. In the Judicial period the spa village was called Villa de Abbas, and it was here, in 1336, that Judge Ugone II, father of Mariano IV and grandfather of Eleanor of Arborea, died.
