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MEGALI LEPRIS (Ancient city) LIBYA
Leptis Magna (he Leptis megale, Leptimagna, Procop. B. V. ii. 21 ;
also Leptis, simply; aft. Neapolis; Leptimagnensis Civitas, Cod. Just. i. 27.
2: Eth. and Adj. Leptitanos, Leptitanus: Lebda, large Ru.), the chief of the three
cities which formed the African Tripolis, in the district between the Syrtes (Regio
Syrtica, aft. Tripolitana), on the N. coast of Africa; the other two being Oea
and Sabrata. Leptis was one of the most ancient Phoenician colonies on this coast,
having been founded by the Sidonians (Sall. Jug. 19, 78); and its site was one
of the most favourable that can be imagined for a city of the first class. It
stood at one of those parts of the coast where the table-land of the Great Desert
falls off to the sea by a succession of mountain ridges, enclosing valleys which
are thus sheltered from those encroachments of sand that cover the shore where
no such protection exists, while they lie open to the breezes of the Mediterranean.
The country, in fact, resembles, on a small scale, the terraces of the Cyrenaic
coast; and its great beauty and fertility have excited the admiration alike of
ancient and modern writers. (Ammian. Marc. xxviii. 6 ; Della Cella ; Beechy; Barth,
&c.) Each of these valleys is watered by its streamlet, generally very insignificant
and even intermittent, but sometimes worthy of being styled a river, as in the
case of the Cinyps and of the smaller stream, further to the west, upon which
Leptis stood. The excellence of the site was much enhanced by the shelter afforded
by the promontory Hermaeum (Ras-al-Ashan), W. of the city, to the roadstead in
its front. The ruins of Leptis are of vast extent, of which a great portion is
buried under the sand which has drifted over them from the sea. From what can
be traced, however, it is clear that these remains contain the ruins of three
different cities.
(1.) The original city, or Old Leptis, still exhibits in its ruins
the characteristics of an ancient Phoenician settlement; and, in its site, its
sea-walls and quays, its harbour, and its defences on the land side, it bears
a striking general resemblance to Carthage. It was built on an elevated tongue
of land, jutting out from the W. bank of the little river, the mouth of which
formed its port, having been artificially enlarged for that purpose. The banks
of the river, as well as the seaward face of the promontory, are lined with walls
of massive masonry, serving as sea-walls as well as quays, and containing some
curious vaulted chambers, which are supposed to have been docks for ships which
were kept (as at Carthage) for a last resource, in case the citadel should be
taken by an enemy. These structures are of a harder stone than the other buildings
of the city; the latter being of a light sandstone, which gave the place a glittering
whiteness to the voyager approaching it from the sea. (Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. p.
453, G., p. 297, H.). On the land side the isthmus was defended by three lines
of massive stone walls, the position of each being admirably adapted to the nature
of the ground; and, in a depression of the ground between the outmost and middle
line, there seems to have been a canal, connecting the harbour in the mouth of
the river with the roadstead W. of the city. Opposite to this tongue of land,
on the E. side of the river, is a much lower, less projecting, and more rounded
promontory, which could not have been left out of the system of external works,
although no part of the city was built upon it. Accordingly we find here, besides
the quays along the river side, and vaults in them, which served for warehouses,
a remarkable building, which seems to have been a fort. Its superstructure is
of brick, and certainly not of Phoenician work; but it probably stood on foundations
coeval with the city. This is the only example of the use of brick in the ruins
of Leptis, with the exception of the walls which surmount the sea-defences already
described. From this eastern, as well as from the western point of land, an artificial
mole was built out, to give additional shelter to the port on either side; but,
through not permitting a free egress to the sand which is washed up on that coast
in vast quantities with every tide, these moles have been the chief cause of the
destruction, first of the port, and afterwards of the city. The former event had
already happened at the date of the Stadiasmus, which describes Leptis as having
no harbour (alimenos). The harbour still existed, however, at the time of the
restoration of the city by Septimius Severus, and small vessels could even ascend
to some distance above the city, as is proved by a quay of Roman work on the W.
bank, at a spot where the river is still deep, though its mouth is now lost in
the sand-hills.
2. The Old City (polis) thus described became gradually, like the
Byrsa of Carthage, the citadel of a much more extensive New City (Neapolis), which
grew up beyond its limits, on the W. bank of the river, where its magnificent
buildings now lie hidden beneath the sand. This New City, as in the case of Carthage
and several other Phoenician cities of like growth, gave its name to the place,
which was hence called Neapolis not, however, as at Carthage, to the disuse of
the old name, Leptis which was never entirely lost, and which became the prevailing
name in the later times of the ancient world, and is the name which the ruins
still retain (Lebda). Under the early emperors both names are found almost indifferently;
but with a slight indication of the preference given to Neapolis and it seems
probable that the name Leptis, with the epithet Magna to distinguish it from Leptis
Parva, prevailed at last for the sake of avoiding any confusion with Neapolis
in Zeugitana. (Strab. xvii. p. 835, Neapolis, hen kai Leptin kalousin: Mela, however,
i. 7. § 5, has Leptis only, with the epithet altera: Pliny, v. 4. s. 4, misled,
as usual, by the abundance of his authorities, makes Leptis and Neapolis different
cities, and he distinguishes this from the other Leptis as Leptis altera, quae
cognominatur magna: Ptolemy, iv. 3. § 13, has Neapolis he kai Leptis megale: Jtin.
Ant. p. 63, and Tab. Peut. Lepti Magna Colonia; Scyl. pp. 111, 112, 113, Gronov.
Nea Polis; Stadiasm. p. 435, Leptis, vulg. Leptes, the coins all have the name
Leptis simply, with the addition, on some of them, of the epithet Colonia Victrix
Julia; but it is very uncertain to which of the two cities of the name these coins
belong; Eckhel, vol. iv. pp. 130, 131; Rasche, s. v.) We learn from Sallust that
the commercial intercourse of Leptis with the native tribes had led to a sharing
of the connubium, and hence to an admixture of the language of the city with the
Libyan dialects (Jug. 78). In fact, Leptis, like the neighbouring Tripoly, which,
with a vastly inferior site, has succeeded to its position, was the great emporium
for the trade with the Garamantes and Phazania and the eastern part of Inner Libya.
But the remains of the New City seem to belong almost entirely to the period of
the Roman Empire, and especially to the reign of Septimius Severus, who restored
and beautified this his native city. (Spart. Sev. 1; Aurel. Vict. Ep. 20.) It
had already before acquired considerable importance under the Romans, whose cause
it espoused in the war with Jugurtha (Sall. Jug. 77 - 79: as to its later condition
see Tac. Hist. iv. 50); and if, as Eckhel inclines to believe, the coins with
the epigraph COL. VIC. IUL. LEP. belong mostly, if not entirely, to Leptis Magna,
it must have been made a colony in the earliest period of the empire. It was still
a flourishing and populous fortified city in the 4th century, when it was greatly
injured by an assault of a Libyan tribe, called the AURUSIANI (Ammian. xxviii.
6); and it never recovered from the blow.
3. Justinian is said to have enclosed a portion of it with a new wall;
but the city itself was already too far buried in the sand to be restored; and,
as far as we can make out, the little that Justinian attempted seems to have amounted
only to the enclosure of a suburb, or old Libyan camp, some distance to the E.
of the river, on the W. bank of which the city itself had stood. (Procop. de Aed.
vi. 4; comp. Barth.) Its ruin was completed during the Arab conquest (Leo, Afr.
p. 435); and, though we find it, in the middle ages, the seat of populous Arab
camps, no attempt has been made to make use of the splendid site, which is now
occupied by the insignificant village of Legatah, and the hamlet of El-Hush, which
consists of only four houses.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TRIPOLI (Ancient city) LIBYA
Oea (Pomp. Mela, i. 7. § 5; Oeensis civitas, Plin. v. 4; Tac. Hist.
iv. 50; Solin. 27; Amm. Marc. xxviii. 6; Eoa, Ptol. iv. 3. § 12), a town in the
district of the Syrtes, which, with Leptis Magna, and Sabrata, formed the African
Tripolis. Although there had probably been an old Phoenician factory here, yet,
from the silence of Scylax and Strabo, the foundation of the Roman colony ( Oeea
colonia, Itin. Anton.) must be assigned to the middle of the first century after
Christ. It flourished under the Romans until the fourth century, when it was greatly
injured by the Libyan Ausuriani. (Amm. Marc. l. c.) At the Saracen invasion it
would seem that a new town sprung up on the ruins of Oea, which assumed the Roman
name of the district--the modern Tripoli; Trablis, the Moorish name of the town,
is merely the same word articulated through the medium of Arab pronunciation.
At Tripoli there is a very perfect marble triumphal arch dedicated to M. Aurelius
Antoninus and L. Aurelius Verus, which will be found beautifully figured in Captain
Lyons Travels in N. Africa, p. 18. Many other Roman remains have been found here,
especially glass urns, some of which have been sent to England.
For some time it was thought that a coin of Antoninus, with the epigraph
COL. AVG. OCE., was to be referred to this town. (Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 131.) Its
right to claim this is now contested. (Duchalais, Restitution a Olbasa de Pisidie,
a Jerusalem et aux Contrees Occ. de la Haute Asie de trois Moonnaies Coloniales
attributes a Ocea, Revue Numismatique, 1849, pp. 97-103; Beechey, Exped. to the
Coast of Africa, pp. 24-32; Barth, Wanderungen, pp. 294, 295, 391.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ABROTONON (Ancient city) LIBYA
(Abrotonon). An African coasttown lying between the Syrtes. It was founded by the Phoenicians, and subsequently became a Roman colony. It was also called Neapolis; and with Oea and Leptis Magna formed the so-called African Tripolis.
Another name for Abrotonum.
MEGALI LEPRIS (Ancient city) LIBYA
Leptis Magna or Neapolis, a city on the coast of North Africa, between the Syrtes, east of Abrotonum, was a Phoenician colony, with a flourishing commerce, though it possessed no harbour. With Abrotonum and Oea it formed the African Tripolis. It was the birthplace of the emperor Septimius Severus.
TRIPOLI (Ancient city) LIBYA
The district on the northern coast of Africa between the two Syrtes, comprising the three cities of Sabrata (or Abrotonum), Oea, and Leptis Magna, and also called Tripolitana Regio.
A titular see in Tripolitana.
Sabrata was a Phoenician
town on the northern coast of Africa, between the two Syrta. With Oca and Leptis
Magna it caused the Greek name Tripolis to be given to the region. Its Phoenician
name, which occurs on coins and in an inscription at Thevesta, was hellenized
Abrotomon, though Pliny (V, 4) makes these two separate towns. Sabrata
became a Roman colony; Justinian fortified the town and built there a beautiful
church. In the Middle Ages it continued to be an important market.
The Arab writers call it Sabrat en-Nefousa, from a powerful tribe,
the Nefousa, formerly Christian. Sabrata is now represented by Zouagha, a small
town called by Europeans Tripoli Vecchia, in the vilayet of Tripoli,
fifty miles west of the town of Tripoli.
Its ruins lie a little north of the village; they consist of crumbled ramparts,
an amphitheatre, and landing-stage.
Four of its bishops are known: Pompey in 233; Nados, present at the
Conference of Carthage, 411;
Vincent, exiled by Genseric about 450; Leo, exiled by Huneric after the Conference
of Carthage, 484.
S. Petrides, ed.
Transcribed by: Ed Sayre
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
MEGALI LEPRIS (Ancient city) LIBYA
On the coast 64 km W of Tripoli, the farthest W of the three cities
(treis poleis) that gave the region its name. Traditionally founded by the Phoenicians,
under the Carthaginians it was successively a seasonal trading post and a permanent
settlement. During the earlier empire it prospered and expanded, but in A.D. 363-65
it was sacked by the Austuriani and, though restored, it declined rapidly under
Vandal rule. Reoccupied and refortified by Justinians troops in A.D. 533, it dwindled
and was finally abandoned after the Moslem conquest of A.D. 643. The remains uncovered
comprise large stretches of the built-up area of the ancient city, including domestic
and commercial quarters, and in this respect they are complementary to the intrinsically
finer but more selectively excavated monuments of Leptis Magna.
The siting and development of the city were determined by the possession
of a small natural harbor, strengthened in Roman times by a concrete mole, and
by the lines of two intersecting roads, the main coastal road (here the "decumanus")
and a road running S from the harbor towards Cydamus (Ghadames) and the trans-Saharan
caravan route. The irregular plan of the quarter beside the harbor marks the site
of the original Punic settlement. On the landward side of this, on the site of
an earlier open market place, was superimposed the neatly rectangular Roman forum,
an early imperial creation. The city developed from this nucleus. To the S this
took place about an orthogonal grid based upon the intersecting axes of the two
main streets, and in the 2d c. there was a similar development to the E on a slightly
different alignment, based on a change of direction in the line of the decumanus.
The area W of the forum awaits excavation. To the S the orderly growth of the
city was limited by an irregular line of quarries and cemeteries. The only known
fortifications of the Roman period are a short stretch of 4th c. wall at the E
end of the excavated area. The Byzantine defenses enclosed a greatly reduced area,
some 16-18 ha in extent, around the forum and the original harborside nucleus.
The now visible remains of the forum complex were preceded by two
constructional phases: an irregular development of the harborside town to the
S, apparently in the 2d c. B.C., which was then swept away to create an open rectangular
space occupied only by temporary structures, presumably an occasional market place.
In the 1st c. A.D. this was replaced by a permanent, elongated rectangular enclosure
extending to right and left of the main street to the S and flanked longitudinally
by shops and offices, of which the foundations of some of those along the S side
are still exposed. Only three of the surviving public buildings can be shown to
belong to this early phase: a large temple, dedicated probably to Liber Pater,
which stood in the middle of the E half; a smaller temple at the NW corner, possibly
dedicated to Serapis, the slightly oblique alignment of which suggests that it
antedates the formal plan of the forum; and along the S side of the W half of
the forum a basilica. The basilica (mid 1st c. A.D.) was of the Vitruvian type,
with internal ambulatory and entered from the middle of one long side; opposite
the entrance was a rectangular tribunal containing a group of imperial statues.
The Temple of Serapis was a small, freestanding edifice of native type set in
the middle of a porticoed enclosure. That of Liber Pater, though of more conventional
Classical plan, was faced with gaudily painted stucco.
During the 2d and 3d c. this complex was gradually transformed. The
shops of the W half were replaced by porticos with Egyptian granite columns, and
the Temple of Liber Pater was enlarged and framed on three sides within a double
portico. Opposite it, at the W end was added (early 2d c.) a capitolium, a broad,
shallow pedimental building with three cellas standing on a very lofty podium,
of which the central part rose sheer from the forum and presumably served as a
rostrum. Along the N side of the W part of the forum was added a curia, of conventional
Roman plan. The tribunal of the basilica was transferred to a new range of rooms
at the W end of the basilica, and between this extension of the basilica and the
capitolium was inserted a cruciform vaulted chamber of uncertain purpose. Other
modifications and additions during the later 2d c. were the remodeling of the
Temple of Serapis on more conventionally Roman lines and the S extension of the
forum complex, replacing earlier houses by two large new temples: one dedicated
to M. Aurelius and L. Verus (A.D. 166-69), S of the Temple of Liber Pater; the
other, of unknown dedication, S of the basilica, of which it partly suppressed
the tribunal. Of all these buildings only the Temple of Liber Pater retained its
traditional structure of sandstone, stuccoed and painted; all the rest were built
or partially rebuilt in marble during the last 60 years of the 2d c.
The only other large public building in the old part of the city
is the public bath at the NE corner of the forum. Beside it is a fine public latrine.
Two more temples were situated in the new quarter to the E: one (A.D. 186-93)
a conventional prostyle building dedicated to Hercules, the other, of Flavian
date and dedicated to Isis, free-standing within an elaborately porticoed temenos
beside the sea at the E end of the excavations. This new, 2d c. quarter is dominated
by the theater, a late Antonine building of which substantial parts of the cavea
and the three orders of the marble scaenae frons have been restored, giving a
unique visual impression of the stage of a large but otherwise typical N African
theater. The figured marble reliefs decorating the front of the pulpitum include
representations of divinities, dancers, and philosophers, scenes from tragedy
and pantomime, and a group with personifications of Rome and Sabratha joining
hands in the presence of soldiers.
Characteristic of the site are the extensively excavated domestic
and commercial quarters. In the early city these were irregular and crowded, with
shops and storerooms occupying the frontages of well-to-do houses with mosaics
and painted stucco ceilings. There are many indications of upper stories of timber
and crude brick. The insulae S and E of the forum illustrate the emergence of
more orderly planning, while those of the 2d c. town are neatly squared, many
with shallow porticoed frontages, as at Timgad. The roofs were regularly flat,
and any building of substance had its own cisterns. On the periphery are several
large peristyle houses with fine mosaics, notably the House of the Oceanus Baths
near the Temple of Isis. The predominantly commercial quarters along the harbor
front include barrel-vaulted warehouses and the foundations of a large basilical
hall.
In the later 4th and 5th c. the city underwent many changes. The
fate of the individual temples is uncertain, but after the Austurian sack the
civil center was restored and remodeled. The forum itself was divided into two
by a transverse portico; the curia was restored on traditional lines, though with
an arcaded atrium; and the basilica was completely remodeled on the pattern of
the Severan basilica at Leptis, with longitudinal naves and two opposed apses.
In the 5th c. it was again rebuilt, this time to serve as a church, with a single
W apse. Two similar but smaller churches were built between the theater and the
sea, a quarter which was probably already largely depopulated, as it certainly
was in the 6th c. when the Byzantine defenses were drawn to enclose an area corresponding
approximately to that of the early 1st c. city, centered on the forum and the
harbor and excluding the later S and E extensions. The basilica underwent a final
restoration, with a baptistery installed in the adjoining cruciform building,
and a new church, with imported marble fittings and a magnificent mosaic, was
inserted between the curia and the sea. Though Arabic graffiti and remains of
hovels found in the forum area and in the theater attest some later habitation,
effective city life was extinguished by the Arab conquest.
Outlying monuments include an amphitheater, to the E; traces of an
aqueduct; remains of several villas, with mosaics and baths, mainly along the
adjacent coasts; and extensive though scattered cemeteries. The latter include
a towerlike Punic mausoleum of the 2d c. B.C. (and traces of a second), in an
area that was later incorporated in the SW outskirts of the town. This was a building
of scalloped triangular plan with several superimposed orders crowned by a pyramidal
spire. There is also a small Christian catacomb, to the E.
The museum on the site includes Classical sculpture, wall-painting;
and stuccos; the marble fittings and mosaics of the Byzantine church; and a large
series of domestic bronzes and pottery.
J. B. Ward-Perkins, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 8 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TRIPOLI (Ancient city) LIBYA
The central one of the three cities (treis poleis) that gave the region
its name. Founded as a trading station by the Carthaginians beside a small natural
harbor, it prospered under Roman rule. In late antiquity its location in a fertile
coastal oasis saved it to some extent from the rapid decline of its neighbors,
and after the Arab conquest of A.D. 643 it was chosen to be the military and administrative
capital of the whole territory between the two Syrtes. The heart of the Classical
city, enclosed within its late antique walls, has been continuously occupied ever
since, obliterating all but a few remains of the Roman town.
The principal surviving monument is an elaborately ornamental quadrifrons
archway dedicated to M. Aurelius and L. Verus in A.D. 163, the central stone dome
of which was carried on flat slabs laid across the angles and was concealed externally
within the masonry of an attic, now destroyed. Early drawings show this attic
in turn supporting a circular pavilion, but this seems to have been a later Islamic
addition. The arch stood at the intersection of the two main streets of the town
and the adjoining streets and alleyways of the post-Classical town incorporate
many elements of an orthogonal street plan. Near the arch are the remains of a
temple dedicated to the Genius Colonine (A.D. 183-85), and the forum probably
lay nearby. There was a monumental bath on or near the site of the present castle.
The city walls, demolished in 1913, incorporated long stretches of the late antique
defenses.
Near the base of the W harbor mole was found a Punic and Roman cemetery,
and scattered burials, including a small Jewish catacomb (now destroyed), have
come to light towards the E, under the modern town. In and near the oasis are
the remains of several villas, with mosaics; also two Christian cemeteries, one
of the 5th c. at Ain Zara, and one of the 10th c., at En-Ngila.
The archaeological museum, housed in the castle, contains antiquities
from the whole of Tripolitania except Sabratha. The fine series of sculpture from
Leptis Magna includes the Julio-Claudian group from the Forum Vetus and the figured
panels of the Severan Arch. Other notable exhibits are the mosaics and the Romano-Libyan
sculpture from Ghirza.
J. B. Ward-Perkins, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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