DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0049
Africa under the Caesars
21
latter days of the Empire, for we learn that Genseric, the Vandal
king, A.D. 440, used the harbour of Carthage for the purposes
of the fleet with which he contemplated ravaging the coast of
Sicily. One may therefore suppose that the harbour of Utica,
which was so renowned for its facilities of access and so adapted
for warlike purposes, was at that time useless. Again, we find
no traces of Byzantine constructions, or reconstruction of Roman
work so common throughout North Africa, clearly proving that
Utica had lost its value as a mercantile town and a stronghold
for defence.
The melancholy interest attaching to the site of any city of the
old world is experienced in a marked degree when we contemplate
and study the Phoenician and Roman remains of Utica. The
town was built on a promontory, and appears to have been
divided into two parts, one occupying a series of heights, the
other, which was washed by the sea, being probably the
commercial centre. Plutarch, in his life of Caesar, says that the
place was very strong and well defended, that Cato strengthened
the fortifications considerably, raised the towers, and surrounded
the walls with a deep ditch. Hirtius, who accompanied Csesar
in his African campaign, also informs us that the fortifications
were magnificent, that the walls were twenty feet thick, with a
height up to the battlements of thirty-four feet. In many
respects the arrangement of the city was similar to that of
Punic Carthage, and was not disturbed by the Romans when
they took possession. There was a war-port of monumental
character, similar to the Cothon 1 at Carthage and other coast
towns, a palace for the admiral situated on an islet in the
centre, a commercial harbour of great extent, a Byrsa or
acropolis, and cisterns of vast dimensions. Among the buildings
of Roman date were a hippodrome, a magnificent theatre,
an amphitheatre and museum, temples and baths. It is
difficult, in the present day, to trace the lines of all these
monumental structures, many of which are indicated by
undulations of the ground rather than by masses of ruined
masonry. According to M. Daux, the hippodrome or circus
1 The term cothon may be regarded as of Phoenician origin. We may accept
the meaning attached to it by Latin commentators, and as used by the Greek historian
Appianus, A.D. 123: ' Cothones appellantur portus in mari arte et manu facti.'
(M. J. Toutain, Les Cites Romaines de la Tunisie, p. 150; also cf. Ch. Tissot,
■Geographic comparee de la Province Romaine d'Afrique, p. 603.)
21
latter days of the Empire, for we learn that Genseric, the Vandal
king, A.D. 440, used the harbour of Carthage for the purposes
of the fleet with which he contemplated ravaging the coast of
Sicily. One may therefore suppose that the harbour of Utica,
which was so renowned for its facilities of access and so adapted
for warlike purposes, was at that time useless. Again, we find
no traces of Byzantine constructions, or reconstruction of Roman
work so common throughout North Africa, clearly proving that
Utica had lost its value as a mercantile town and a stronghold
for defence.
The melancholy interest attaching to the site of any city of the
old world is experienced in a marked degree when we contemplate
and study the Phoenician and Roman remains of Utica. The
town was built on a promontory, and appears to have been
divided into two parts, one occupying a series of heights, the
other, which was washed by the sea, being probably the
commercial centre. Plutarch, in his life of Caesar, says that the
place was very strong and well defended, that Cato strengthened
the fortifications considerably, raised the towers, and surrounded
the walls with a deep ditch. Hirtius, who accompanied Csesar
in his African campaign, also informs us that the fortifications
were magnificent, that the walls were twenty feet thick, with a
height up to the battlements of thirty-four feet. In many
respects the arrangement of the city was similar to that of
Punic Carthage, and was not disturbed by the Romans when
they took possession. There was a war-port of monumental
character, similar to the Cothon 1 at Carthage and other coast
towns, a palace for the admiral situated on an islet in the
centre, a commercial harbour of great extent, a Byrsa or
acropolis, and cisterns of vast dimensions. Among the buildings
of Roman date were a hippodrome, a magnificent theatre,
an amphitheatre and museum, temples and baths. It is
difficult, in the present day, to trace the lines of all these
monumental structures, many of which are indicated by
undulations of the ground rather than by masses of ruined
masonry. According to M. Daux, the hippodrome or circus
1 The term cothon may be regarded as of Phoenician origin. We may accept
the meaning attached to it by Latin commentators, and as used by the Greek historian
Appianus, A.D. 123: ' Cothones appellantur portus in mari arte et manu facti.'
(M. J. Toutain, Les Cites Romaines de la Tunisie, p. 150; also cf. Ch. Tissot,
■Geographic comparee de la Province Romaine d'Afrique, p. 603.)