Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SABRATA 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.
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