TWO BURIED CITIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 November 1925, Page 16

TWO BURIED CITIES.

REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES. STATUES AND EPITAPHS. People are only just beginning to realise the importance and extent of the excavations that are being carried on by the Italian Government in Tripolitania. Under the able direction of Dr. Renato Bartoccini, ahd with every eneouragement from the Governor, Count Volpi. the work has been pushed on systematically during the last three or four years, with surprising results, says the Rome correspondent of the London Observer.

Sabratlia, Ola (Tripoli), and Leptis Magna are the triad of ancient seaports that gave its name to this region. Originally founded by the Phoenicians, they became flourishing colonies under the Roman ruie, centres of trade and commerce, and provided besides with all the amenities for a luxurious social life. Yet only Tripoli managed ,to survive the fall of the Empire; the other two sank slowly into ruin, the process being helped at intervals by floods and earthquakes and by repeated pillagings, first by native tribes and later by the Arabs. Finally, as the centuries went by, the wind that blew from the sea gradually

buried these deserted cities of Libya, obliterating all traces of the buildings that now lie some thirty or forty feet below the surface level. Sabratlia, the most western of the three cities, is about fifty miles distant from Tripoli. It is reached by a good motor track laid down by Italian soldiers. There is also a railway line between Tripoli and Zuara, which will shortly be extended and, connected with the French. Tunisian lines. The excavations at Sabratlia have only been going on regularly since 1923. The soldiers and native prisoners, who form the hulk of Dr. fJartoeoini’s small army of woikor.s, have attacked the Cranes to such purpose that the remains of a largo temple, a fine amphitheatre, and an establishment of public baths decorated with mosaics have already been laid bare. A TEMPLE TO JUPITER. The sand that hid also protected, for everything ,is in excellent preservation, and. thougTi thrown down, the different parts are almost intact. Fortunately neither the nomad tribes nor the Arabs had any use for building materials or sculptures. The temple was presumably dedicated to Jupiter. It is elevated on a high podium and measures 101 feet by 72 feet. There is an altar in the midst of a double flight of steps, and all around lie

columns, sculptures, and decorative reliefs waiting to be put back intotheir old places. The amphitheatre, when fully excavated, will prove to be the- most important and complete monument of the kind in North Africa, with the exception of the one at El Djem. The size of the arena is rather over twothirds of that of the Roman Colosseum. The history' of Sabratlia. has hitherto been somewhat obscure, not a single inscription referring to it having ever been found. Only a mosaic at Ostia records the facr that a.statio Sabrathensis existed at that port. The recent excavations have gladdened archaeologists with a rich harvest of epitaphs, twenty-two of which are complete. Most of them attest the devotion of the city to various emperors, from Trojan to Constantine, and to members of the imperial families; some inscriptions are in honour of public-spirited citizens, such as the tribune of the 7th Legion. SABRATHA AND HER CITIZENS. Sabratlia seems to have been fortunate in her citizens, for there was another one who gave a gladatorial show in the amphitheatre that lasted for five days; and the people, grateful for ■ such prolonged amusement, decreed him a bronze chariot. Flavin JDomitilla, the first wife of Vespasian, was a native of Sabratlia, and here, in 157, the Roman writer, Lucius Appuleius, stood liis trial on a somewhat comic charge of necromancy, of which he was honourably acquitted by the African |V«-e»nsu 1, Claudius Maximus. Leptis Magna, seventy-five miles east of Tripoli, is pleasantly situated in the midst of a fertile district, and was a great emporium of trade with the interior of Libya. It derived a fictitious importance in the second century as being the birthplace of the Emperor Septimus Severus. He never forgot his native city, which he restored and be'nutified with magnificent buildings as a tribute to his own glory. It is stated that as he laydying in the bleak north the thoughts oi' the great Emperor turned to the African sunshine and his African soldiers, while the Africans in their turn “loved him as a god.” The excavations here are on a much larger scale, yielding far finer results than those at Sabratlia. It is not impossible that, with time, the whole of the ancient city may be recovered. RUINS OF THE PALACE. The sand is being, removed from a paved Roman read, leading from the arch to the Thermae, which cover a square area of 244 feet by 244 feet. These are built of great blocks of limestone, with a relies resting on columns of coloured marbles, and the different is hot and cold baths, including two

marble-lined piscinae, have already been unearthed. A wealth of statues, all in good condition, even to their noses, and some of them almost intact, has been discovered here. Twenty-two were found in less than two months. Beyond the baths, joined to them by a colonnade now in course of excavation, are the remains of a vast edifice known as the Imperial Palace. It covers an area of about 35, 00(1 square yards, and, when completely- restored,

it will be one of the finest specimens extant of a grand Rbman building of the period. The massive walls are 96 feet high ; there is a huge rectangular hall, of which the two longest sides are lined by porticos supported on granite columns while . the shorter ends nr© marked by circular recesses flanked by square marble pilasters, with Corinthian capitals, beautifully carved in all their length in a design of human I heads and figures encircled by scrolls, volutes and foliage.