CORRESPONDENCE.
THE NUMIDIAN POMPEII.
TILL I went to Algeria last winter, I had no idea of the number and importance of the remains of Roman civilisation still existing in North Africa. For instance, I had read of Thamngas as "a city of Numidia, near the Aures Mountains," but had never heard of the interesting discoveries lately made there under the direction of the French Ministry of Education, in consequence of which the title of the "Numidian Pompeii" is not unjustly claimed for this remote border settlement of the empire of Trajan. I visited the place on March 7th : perhaps a short account of what I then saw may interest your readers. Algeria is now traversed by excellent roads in every direction. We left the railway, to Biskra from Constantine, at Batna Station, and about twenty-two miles from thence, noticed a number of short white pillars standing out against
the dark side of a not very high hill, with somewhat the effect of a cemetery. An inscription on what looked like a mile- stone by the way-side, intimated that here was a "Historical Monument, the Roman city of Thamugas," so we turned off by a rough lane across the desolate pasture-land, descended into the deep bed of a brook, which we forded, and climbing out on the other side, presently found ourselves surrounded by a multitude of hewn stones scattered among the rank herbage. Some massive foundations and pavements, on which rested large Corinthian capitals, denoted the position of one of the -city gates ; and further on, we came to the row of pillars already mentioned. Here was the "Street called Straight," the principal thoroughfare, wonderfully well preserved, con- sidering that twelve hundred years have elapsed since it was deserted by its inhabitants. This African Pompeii was not overwhelmed by a volcano, but gradually desolated by war, and at last burned by the barbarians of the Aures, to restrain whose inroads it was originally founded. Quantities of charred timber were discovered among the rubbish which covered it ; but when this was removed, the great stones of the ancient pavement appeared, neatly joined together, and showing by the tracks of wheels what busy traffic had once passed over it. There was a little ridge raised in the middle, difficult to explain,— no marks of horses' hoofs, and none of the stepping-stones at -corners so remarkable at Pompeii. A colonnade of monoliths bordered this street on each side. Their bases, raised on steps, are entire, but the tops are all broken off, though some are still 20 ft. high. Behind the pillars were low shops, like those in the bazaars of Tanis, lined with marble slabs, and roofed over with earthenware jars made for the purpose, without bottoms, and turned to fit a vault. Many are lying where they fell. The street runs east and west; we turned to the right, or west, to visit the principal monument of the city. This is a triumphal arch, erected by the Decurions of the colony in honour of Trajan, who is called its founder. The principal arch crosses the street, and there are smaller openings at each side for foot-passengers. It is strange to -see such beautiful architecture in this wild and lonely region, where there are now no dwellings but the tents -of Arab herdsmen. However, we have examples of Gothic archi- tecture in England among the Yorkshire valleys equal to any- thing in our grandest cathedrals. It was the solitary situation of Thamugas that saved it from the fate of Carthage, which served as a quarry to build Tunis and Cairwan. The Corinthian pillars and capitals of Trajan's Arch are of singular elegance, and the varied colour of the marbles of different kinds, softened by the exposure of centuries to African suns and showers, adds greatly to its charm. Nothing of the kind that I have seen in Rome itself has given me more pleasure. A statue of white marble has been replaced in one of the niches above. There are several tolerably perfect figures remaining at Thamugas, where, in their ancient drapery costume, they seem to represent the vanished population of this splendidiesinta civitas, as it was termed. Antique statues have always more effect among their original surroundings than in modern museums. Near the arch is the macellurrn, or market, a square surrounded by an arcade on columns. The pillars are all fallen, but -the stone tables remain in the shops between them. On a hill -behind, surrounded by a sort of cloister (some of the pillars are still erect), is the Temple of Jupiter, the only one in the city. It had been damaged by an earthquake in the reign of Valens and Valentinian, when the Magistrates repaired it. But it must have been finally overthrown by another shock, as the enormous fluted drums of its columns, and their elaborately carved Corinthian capitals of great size, lie as they fell. It, one would imagine, might be easily restored. One of the four
city churches stood a little below this noble temple. They were all small, and of inferior architecture. It is only at Carthage that traces remain of a great basilica like those of Rome. Returning through the Arch of Triumph, we notice a marble fountain, its edges chipped by the frequent dipping into it of bronze and earthenware pitchers. There is no water in the place now, but the Romans had a neighbouring stream conducted to it, and when the hills, now so bare, were covered with forests, the two rivulets not far off were better filled than now.
The main street has been cleared to near the east end of the little city, where we can study how the chief civil buildings of a Roman town were arranged. A handsome portico, already re- ferred to, led to the right, into the Forum, a small square with a, pulpit for orators at one aide; off this were the Basilica and the Senate House, adorned with curious twisted columns, ending in little darts. The theatre was behind; its seats, ex-
cavated in the hill-side, are quite perfect, and all the arrange- ments of the stage, though the pillars of the ecena have been broken off. The Magistrates' chairs, the mosaic pavements, are all in their places, and I could even read a sportive in- scription, traced on the floor of the Forum with some sharp instrument:—" To hunt, to bathe, to play, to laugh : this is to live." A lazy fellow had added, " to rest ;" and another wag, "the life of a duck." As the " h " in hoc is omitted, there is a precedent here for the English custom of dropping the aspirate. A table, with little holes for some game, is also carved in a corner of this pavement. May not the Donatist fanaticism to which the first ruin of Thamugas is attributed, have been partly an ascetic reaction against this easy-going, pagan view of life P I suspect, too, that it was a Numidian revolt of the fierce African temper against the rather servile loyalty of the Roman colonists, devoted to the distant Cresar. The rains of Thamugas are full of inscriptions, mostly the pompous titles of the reigning Emperors. I noticed, both here and at Lambessa, how Geta's name had been erased by deep cutting into the marble after his murder. M. Moliner Violle, of Batna, has published a useful little book giving all these inscriptions in full. They illustrate the life of a Roman city, and show that ambition and vanity were as powerful motives then as now. Some give the CUMAS honorunt, a list of the successive promotions of a great man ; others his pollicitatio, the pro- mises of gifts to the city by which he gained his rank, or "bought a living," as we say. For priestly dignities among the pagan hierarchy were eagerly coveted, and might be obtained by judicious liberality to the public. One very long inscription records the names of sixty-eight members of the Corporation of the "Republic," as it is called, in the reign of Valens. It was a rich and luxurious little commonwealth ; even the latrinx, near the Forum, are handsomely finished and ornamented. A small square is surrounded by stone seats like the stalls in a church, divided from each other by neat little marble dolphins with their tails in the air, and these fish had plenty of water running round them. Unlike the military Lambessa, Thamugas had no amphitheatre.
The baths are in the quarter of the city not yet excavated. What has been uncovered is carefully preserved, very clean, and not disfigured by names scribbled on the walls, as is too common. There are no Europeans in the neighbourhood; an Arab peasant is the keeper in charge. We are accustomed to think of the Byzantine reconquest of Africa under Belisarius as a mere brief period of transition ; but it has left many monuments in the country, from rude watch-towers to large castles. There is a huge Byzantine fortress near Thamugas, to construct which the public buildings of the city and the tombs of the citizens were ruthlessly despoiled. It was run up in haste in the last agony of Roman rule in Numidia. But the tide of barbarism was too strong, and Kahinna, the Berber priestess, as her name signifies, came down with her wild followers from the snow-clad mountains near, and burned Thamugas to save it, it is said, from those yet more savage conquerors, the Saracens, then in the first fury of conversion
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