DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0085
Africa under the Cassars
47
little time before, surrounded it with walls in order that, in case
of necessity, it might serve as a fortress. Areobindas, governor
of Africa, took refuge there, having previously sent his wife
and his sister.' The work at Theveste fully bears out this
description.
Among other monumental remains of this city the quadri-
frontal arch of the time of Caracalla is a conspicuous object,
and demands notice on account of the rarity of this form of
architectural composition. It will compare favourably with the
arch of Janus at Rome, but is in every way inferior to a similar
edifice at Tripoli. From inscriptions we learn the complete
history of the structure, how the youngest of three brothers,
members of a wealthy family at Theveste, bequeathed all his pro-
perty to his two brothers on condition of their erecting a triumphal
arch in his native town, to be surmounted by two tetrastyles 1
enclosing statues of the two Augusti. This Caius Cornelius
Egrilianus, who commanded the 14th legion Gemina, quartered
in Pannonia, must have been a man of considerable substance,
for in addition to this munificent bequest he enjoined his
brothers to place in the forum statues of Juno and Minerva, to
appropriate a sum of 250,000 sesterces for the purpose of afford-
ing free baths to the inhabitants in the public Thermos, and
lastly 170 pounds weight of silver and 14 pounds weight of
1 A tetrastyle is a square edifice, adorned with four columns, surmounted by a
dome or cupola {tholus). It was sometimes called cedicula tetrastyla, and frequently
a statue of marble or bronze was placed within it. Here is an inscription found at
Constantine relating to the dedication of a tetrastyle with a tholus (ArchcEolog. Journ.
vol. xxix. 1882) :—
C • IVLIVS
Q • F • QVIR
POTITVS
TETRASTV
LVM • ET
THOLVM
D • E • D
The word tholus is correct Latin, signifying a round roof or a cupola. The word
cupola is of Arabic origin. Tholus is applicable to a building of circular form, having
the same meaning as 66\os, which was used with reference to the round chamber or
rotunda at Athens, in which the Prytanes dined. Cupola, like alcove and the verb
' to cove,' is derived from the Arabic word gobba, which was originally applied to the
hump on a camel's back, and afterwards to the cup-shaped tents of nomadic tribes.
This word is now pronounced 'koubba,' and is applied generally to native tombs
roofed with a cupola. The Italian language retains the word, in its primitive
signification, mgobbo, a hunchback.
47
little time before, surrounded it with walls in order that, in case
of necessity, it might serve as a fortress. Areobindas, governor
of Africa, took refuge there, having previously sent his wife
and his sister.' The work at Theveste fully bears out this
description.
Among other monumental remains of this city the quadri-
frontal arch of the time of Caracalla is a conspicuous object,
and demands notice on account of the rarity of this form of
architectural composition. It will compare favourably with the
arch of Janus at Rome, but is in every way inferior to a similar
edifice at Tripoli. From inscriptions we learn the complete
history of the structure, how the youngest of three brothers,
members of a wealthy family at Theveste, bequeathed all his pro-
perty to his two brothers on condition of their erecting a triumphal
arch in his native town, to be surmounted by two tetrastyles 1
enclosing statues of the two Augusti. This Caius Cornelius
Egrilianus, who commanded the 14th legion Gemina, quartered
in Pannonia, must have been a man of considerable substance,
for in addition to this munificent bequest he enjoined his
brothers to place in the forum statues of Juno and Minerva, to
appropriate a sum of 250,000 sesterces for the purpose of afford-
ing free baths to the inhabitants in the public Thermos, and
lastly 170 pounds weight of silver and 14 pounds weight of
1 A tetrastyle is a square edifice, adorned with four columns, surmounted by a
dome or cupola {tholus). It was sometimes called cedicula tetrastyla, and frequently
a statue of marble or bronze was placed within it. Here is an inscription found at
Constantine relating to the dedication of a tetrastyle with a tholus (ArchcEolog. Journ.
vol. xxix. 1882) :—
C • IVLIVS
Q • F • QVIR
POTITVS
TETRASTV
LVM • ET
THOLVM
D • E • D
The word tholus is correct Latin, signifying a round roof or a cupola. The word
cupola is of Arabic origin. Tholus is applicable to a building of circular form, having
the same meaning as 66\os, which was used with reference to the round chamber or
rotunda at Athens, in which the Prytanes dined. Cupola, like alcove and the verb
' to cove,' is derived from the Arabic word gobba, which was originally applied to the
hump on a camel's back, and afterwards to the cup-shaped tents of nomadic tribes.
This word is now pronounced 'koubba,' and is applied generally to native tombs
roofed with a cupola. The Italian language retains the word, in its primitive
signification, mgobbo, a hunchback.