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153-558: The Numidian name of the settlement was recorded in the Libyco-Berber alphabet as TBGG. The Punic name of the settlement is recorded as tbgg ( 𐤕𐤁‬𐤂‬𐤂‬ ) and tbgʿg ( 𐤕𐤁‬𐤂𐤏‬𐤂 ). The Root B GG in Phoenician means ("in the roof terrace"). Camps states that this may represent a borrowing of a Berber word derived from the root tbg ("to protect"). This evidently derives from

306-448: A community ( pagus ) of Roman colonists also arose alongside the existing settlement. For two centuries, the site was thus governed by two civic and institutional bodies: the city with its peregrini and the pagus with its Roman citizens . Both had Roman civic institutions: magistrates and a council ( ordo ) of decurions for the city, a local council from the end of the 1st century   AD, and local administrators for

459-416: A portico and shops on two sides. The northern side had a portico, while an exedra occupied the southern side. The exedra probably housed a statue of Mercury . In order to compensate for the natural incline of the ground on which the market stands, its builders undertook significant earthworks. These earthworks have been dated as being amongst the oldest Roman constructions, and their orientation vis-à-vis

612-488: A citadel. Former imperial capitals such as Cologne and Trier lived on in diminished form as administrative centres of the Franks . In Britain most towns and cities had been in decline, apart from a brief period of recovery during the fourth century, well before the withdrawal of Roman governors and garrisons but the process might well have stretched well into the fifth century. Historians emphasizing urban continuities with

765-454: A complicated, but well documented naming convention of Berber antiquity and medieval times. While this wasn't always the case, this was especially true for nobles or higher leaders. The way it worked was simple: Verb in the 3rd person + personal pronouns as an affix (direct or indirect) in 3rd person plural form (he/she-X-they/of them). For example, the actual name of Jughurta most likely sounded as " y-uger-ten " (he who surpasses them), while

918-412: A general decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of late antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe, and a reversion to more of a subsistence economy. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there was a reversion to a greater degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce and specialized production. Concurrently, the continuity of

1071-490: A later addition of the system. The Lybico-Berber tifinagh and the Phoenician alphabet being abjads without vowels complicates the matter even more. Work on deciphering the language has not been decisive, although especially recently some tried to reconstruct words by comparing Numidian script to proto and modern Berber languages. Most remaining scripts are funerary, and follow the formula of " X w-Y " (X son of Y). BNS

1224-561: A long tunnel used by the slaves working at the baths. The baths were donated to the city by the Licinii family in the 3rd century. They were primarily used as winter baths. The frigidarium has triple arcades at both ends and large windows with views over the valley beyond. The presence of dolmens in North Africa has served to stoke historiographic debates that have been said to have ideological agendas. The dolmens at Dougga have been

1377-469: A partial revival of classicism). Nearly all of these more abstracted conventions could be observed in the glittering mosaics of the era, which during this period moved from being decoration derivative from painting used on floors (and walls likely to become wet) to a major vehicle of religious art in churches. The glazed surfaces of the tesserae sparkled in the light and illuminated the basilica churches. Unlike their fresco predecessors, much more emphasis

1530-520: A period of dynamic religious experimentation and spirituality with many syncretic sects, some formed centuries earlier, such as Gnosticism or Neoplatonism and the Chaldaean oracles , some novel, such as hermeticism . Culminating in the reforms advocated by Apollonius of Tyana being adopted by Aurelian and formulated by Flavius Claudius Julianus to create an organized but short-lived pagan state religion that ensured its underground survival into

1683-627: A plateau with an uninhibited view of the surrounding plains in the Oued Khalled. The site offers a high degree of natural protection, which helps to explain its early occupation. The slope on which Dougga is built rises to the north and is bordered in the east by the cliff known as Kef Dougga. Further to the east, the ridge of the Fossa Regia , a ditch and boundary made by the Romans after the destruction of Carthage, indicates Dougga's position as

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1836-522: A point of contact between the Punic and Berber worlds. Dougga's history is best known from the time of the Roman conquest, even though numerous pre-Roman monuments, including a necropolis , a mausoleum , and several temples have been discovered during archaeological digs. These monuments are an indication of the site's importance before the arrival of the Romans. The city appears to have been founded in

1989-576: A population of 800,000 in the beginning of the period to a population of 30,000 by the end of the period, the most precipitous drop coming with the breaking of the aqueducts during the Gothic War . A similar though less marked decline in urban population occurred later in Constantinople, which was gaining population until the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian in 541. In Europe there was also

2142-521: A proliferation of various ascetic or semi-ascetic practices. Holy Fools and Stylites counted among the more extreme forms but through such personalities like John Chrysostom , Jerome , Augustine or Gregory the Great monastic attitudes penetrated other areas of Christian life. Late antiquity marks the decline of Roman state religion , circumscribed in degrees by edicts likely inspired by Christian advisors such as Eusebius to 4th-century emperors, and

2295-525: A shade exotic," observes H. R. Loyn , "owing their reason for being more to the military and administrative needs of Rome than to any economic virtue". The other institutional power centre, the Roman villa , did not survive in Britain either. Gildas lamented the destruction of the twenty-eight cities of Britain; though not all in his list can be identified with known Roman sites, Loyn finds no reason to doubt

2448-418: A stone slab. The other sides are decorated with fake windows and four Aeolic pilasters . The second level is made up of a temple-like colonnade ( naiskos ); the columns on each side are Ionic . The third level is the most richly decorated of all: in addition to pilasters similar to those on the lowest level, it is capped with a pyramid . Some elements of carved stone have also survived. Although work has in

2601-443: A tribune for speeches probably also stood here. Long ago, archaeologists believed that Roman settlement at Dougga occurred ex nihilo . This suggestion has been contradicted by the discovery of a sanctuary dedicated to Massinissa amongst the substructures to the rear of the capitol. Numidian language Numidian / n ( j ) uː ˈ m ɪ d i ən / was a language spoken in ancient Numidia . The script in which it

2754-515: A vehicle for the last group of powerful pagans to resist Christianity, as in the late 4th century Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych . Extravagant hoards of silver plate are especially common from the 4th century, including the Mildenhall Treasure , Esquiline Treasure , Hoxne Hoard , and the imperial Missorium of Theodosius I . In the field of literature, late antiquity is known for the declining use of classical Greek and Latin , and

2907-582: Is Baiyara (perhaps modern Montoro ), mentioned as founded by Reccared in the 15th-century geographical account, Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar . The arrival of a highly urbanized Islamic culture in the decade following 711 ensured the survival of cities in the Hispaniae into the Middle Ages. Beyond the Mediterranean world, the cities of Gaul withdrew within a constricted line of defense around

3060-602: Is 21 m (69 ft) tall and was built in the 2nd century   BC. A bilingual inscription installed in the mausoleum mentioned that the tomb was dedicated to Ateban, the son of Iepmatath and Palu. In 1842, Sir Thomas Reade, the British consul in Tunis seriously damaged the monument while removing this inscription. This bilingual Punic-Libyan Inscription , now held at the British Museum , made it possible to decode

3213-645: Is a now extinct branch of the Berber languages , although some linguists believe that Numidian is not an ancestor but an extinct sister branch to the modern surviving Berber languages. If the translations of "SBS" (asebbas) in the Thugga inscription as "year" is correct then that would mean the Proto-Berber form "ww" which evolved into "gg" or "gʷ" in most modern Berber languages was "bb" or "bʷ" in Numidian. This

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3366-411: Is also an often returning words in this script, which probably meant "tomb of". Many words had an H at the end of them, the function of which is unclear. A few gravestones show a different word between the two personal names, plausibly interpreted as a kinship term based on Berber comparisons: wlt "daughter (of)" (modern Berber wəlt ), and, more rarely, mt "mother (of)" (modern Tuareg ma ). Similar to

3519-469: Is also unknown whether the language of the neighbouring Kingdom of Mauretania in what is approximately modern day Morocco formed a part of the Numidian language, or was a separate language from it, as there has been as of yet no major efforts into decoding it, and there are no known sources describing it. As the Massylii , who spoke the language, were ethnically Berber , it is supposed that Numidian

3672-605: Is debated . Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius (r. 308–324). By the late 4th century, Emperor Theodosius the Great had made Christianity the State religion, thereby transforming the Classical Roman world, which Peter Brown characterized as "rustling with the presence of many divine spirits ." Constantine I

3825-543: Is only found in the Zenaga language of Mauritania and a few instances of Kabyle in modern times. As Zenaga was one of the first Berber languages to split off from the Proto-Berber group and thus still possesses many ancient characteristics, along with the Numidian usage of this form, could suggest that in the evolution of Berber languages "ww" turned into "bʷ" and then into "gʷ". Numidian names generally often followed

3978-712: Is small. It is better preserved in some places than others, because the construction of the Byzantine fort damaged a large section of it. The capitol, which stands on an area surrounded by porticos , dominates its surroundings by virtue of its imposing appearance. The "square of the Rose of the Winds " (which is named after a decorative element) seems more like an esplanade leading to the Temple of Mercury , which stands on its northern side, than an open public space. The city's curia and

4131-520: Is the end of the polis model. While there was a decline of urban life in late antiquity (especially in the West) the epoch brought with it new forms of political participation in the urban spaces as well. Especially the role of crowds and masses in cities has increased, leading to new levels of tension. In the cities the strained economies of Roman over-expansion arrested growth. Almost all new public building in late antiquity came directly or indirectly from

4284-453: Is the word for king . Finally, "w-gjj" means "son of Gaia ". Thus by attempting to translate the Numidian text through modern and proto-Berber the inscription would read " Massinissa the king, son of Gaia ". Numidian also featured and shared most or all of its prepositions "n" (of) and "d" (and) with modern Berber, along with various prefixes, such as "ta...-t", "m-" etc. with modern Berber. These facts would strongly suggest that Numidian

4437-409: The pagus , who were legally subordinated to the distant but powerful colony of Carthage. In addition, epigraphic evidence indicates that a Punic -style dual magistracy, the sufetes , achieved some civic stature here well into the imperial period. In fact, the city once had three magistrates serve at once, a relative rarity in the Mediterranean. Over time, the romanization of the city brought

4590-578: The Augustus . The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities. Archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in the Mediterranean Basin . Two diagnostic symptoms of decline—or as many historians prefer, 'transformation'—are subdivision, particularly of expansive formal spaces in both the domus and the public basilica , and encroachment, in which artisans' shops invade

4743-490: The Afroasiatic family, although it was most likely part of the Berber languages , spoken at the start of the breakup of the Proto-Berber language . It is known that there was an orthographical difference between the western and eastern Numidian language. Starting at Kabylia , which was a kind of mixed region, the regions to the east all the way to what is east of modern-day Tunisia and western parts of Libya used

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4896-578: The Anglo-Saxon period depend largely on the post-Roman survival of Roman toponymy . Aside from a mere handful of its continuously inhabited sites, like York and London and possibly Canterbury , however, the rapidity and thoroughness with which its urban life collapsed with the dissolution of centralized bureaucracy calls into question the extent to which Roman Britain had ever become authentically urbanized: "in Roman Britain towns appeared

5049-520: The Arab invasions marked—through conquest and the disruption of Mediterranean trade routes—the cataclysmic end of late antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages . On the other hand, there is a more recent thesis, associated with scholars in the tradition of Peter Brown, in which Islam is seen to be a product of the late antique world, not foreign to it. This school suggests that its origin within

5202-654: The Byzantine military manuals achieving great renown and influence: the most famous of which is the Strategikon attributed to Emperor Maurice , written in the 6th century. One genre of literature among Christian writers in this period was the Hexaemeron , dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the Genesis creation narrative . The first example of this

5355-471: The De arithmetica , De musica , and De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius —both later key works in medieval education). The 4th and 5th centuries also saw an explosion of Christian literature , of which Greek writers such as Eusebius of Caesarea , Basil of Caesarea , Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and Latin writers such as Ambrose of Milan , Jerome and Augustine of Hippo are only among

5508-657: The Greek East and Latin West became more pronounced. The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the early 4th century was ended by Galerius and under Constantine the Great , Christianity was made legal in the Empire. The 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire was extended by the conversions of Tiridates the Great of Armenia , Mirian III of Iberia , and Ezana of Axum , who later invaded and ended

5661-568: The Kingdom of Kush . During the late 4th century reign of Theodosius I , Nicene Christianity was proclaimed the state church of the Roman Empire . The city of Constantinople became the permanent imperial residence in the East by the 5th century and superseded Rome as the largest city in the Late Roman Empire and the Mediterranean Basin . The longest Roman aqueduct system, the 250 km (160 mi)-long Aqueduct of Valens

5814-582: The Late Antique Little Ice Age ) and a disastrous pandemic (the Plague of Justinian in 541). The effects of these events in the social and political life are still under discussion. In the 7th century the disastrous Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and the campaigns of Khosrow II and Heraclius facilitated the emergence of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula during the lifetime of Muhammad . Subsequent Muslim conquest of

5967-457: The Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the "Roman" tradition. While the usage "Late Antiquity" suggests that the social and cultural priorities of classical antiquity endured throughout Europe into the Middle Ages , the usage of "Early Middle Ages" or "Early Byzantine" emphasizes a break with the classical past, and the term " Migration Period " tends to de-emphasize

6120-460: The Republican senatorial class was replaced with the silk court vestments and jewelry associated with Byzantine imperial iconography. Also indicative of the times is the fact that the imperial cabinet of advisors came to be known as the consistorium , or those who would stand in courtly attendance upon their seated emperor, as distinct from the informal set of friends and advisors surrounding

6273-467: The emperors . Dougga's development culminated during the reign of Gallienus , when it obtained the status of a separate Roman colony . Dougga's monuments attest to its prosperity in the period from the reign of Diocletian to that of Theodosius I , but it fell into a sort of stupor from the 4th century. The city appears to have experienced an early decline, as evidenced by the relatively poor remains of Christianity . The period of Byzantine rule saw

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6426-620: The later Roman Empire , as it was reorganized by Diocletian (r. 284–305), and the Early Middle Ages are stressed by writers who wish to emphasize that the seeds of medieval culture were already developing in the Christianized empire, and that they continued to do so in the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire at least until the coming of Islam . Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as

6579-411: The "Good Shepherd", resembling the traditional iconography of Hermes. He was increasingly given Roman elite status, and shrouded in purple robes like the emperors with orb and scepter in hand — this new type of depiction is variously thought to be derived from either the iconography of Jupiter or of classical philosophers. As for luxury arts, manuscript illumination on vellum and parchment emerged from

6732-399: The "preserver of liberty" ( conservator libertatis ). It is, however, unclear exactly what form this liberty took. Toutain is of the opinion that this is a designation for a particular type of municipium —free cities where the Roman governor did not have the right to control the municipal magistrates. There is however no evidence that Dougga enjoyed exceptional legal privileges of

6885-459: The "ultimate liberty" ( summa libertas )—the promotion to the status of a colony. Christol also points out that, despite the abstract character of terms such as libertas or dignitas , their formal appearance should be references to concrete and unique events. The city as it exists today consists essentially of remains from the Roman era dating for the most part to the 2nd and 3rd century. The Roman builders had to take account both of

7038-558: The 3rd century was a major step in the development of Christian spirituality. While it initially operated outside the episcopal authority of the Church, it would become hugely successful and by the 8th century it became one of the key Christian practices. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in late antiquity, although it had perhaps the greatest influence and it achieved unprecedented geographical spread. It influenced many aspects of Christian religious life and led to

7191-578: The 5th century, with a few manuscripts of Roman literary classics like the Vergilius Vaticanus and the Vergilius Romanus , but increasingly Christian texts, of which Quedlinburg Itala fragment (420–430) is the oldest survivor. Carved ivory diptychs were used for secular subjects, as in the imperial and consular diptychs presented to friends, as well as religious ones, both Christian and pagan – they seem to have been especially

7344-400: The 6th century BC. Some historians believe that Dougga is the city of Tocae ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Τοκαί , Tokaí ), which was captured by a lieutenant of Agathocles of Syracuse at the end of the 4th century   BC; Diodorus of Sicily described Tocae as "a city of beautiful grandeur". Dougga was in any case an early and important human settlement. Its urban character is evidenced by

7497-704: The Balkans and Persian destructions in Anatolia in the 620s. City life continued in Syria, Jordan and Palestine into the 8th. In the later 6th century street construction was still undertaken in Caesarea Maritima in Palestine, and Edessa was able to deflect Chosroes I with massive payments in gold in 540 and 544, before it was overrun in 609. The stylistic changes characteristic of late antique art mark

7650-508: The Balkans, 'where inhabited centres contracted and regrouped around a defensible acropolis , or were abandoned in favour of such positions elsewhere." In the western Mediterranean, the only new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic "victory cities". Reccopolis in the province of Guadalajara is one: the others were Victoriacum , founded by Leovigild , which may survive as

7803-632: The Byzantine age and beyond. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India and along the Silk Road in Central Asia , while Manichaeism , a Dualist faith, arose in Mesopotamia and spread both East and West, for a time contending with Christianity in the Roman Empire. Many of the new religions relied on the emergence of the parchment codex (bound book) over the papyrus volumen (scroll),

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7956-681: The Early Middle Ages. The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organizational changes starting with the reign of Diocletian , who began the custom of splitting the Empire into Eastern and Western portions ruled by multiple emperors simultaneously . The Sasanian Empire supplanted the Parthian Empire and began a new phase of the Roman–Persian Wars, the Roman–Sasanian Wars . The divisions between

8109-568: The Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople meant that the turning-point for the Greek East came later, in the 7th century, as the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire centered around the Balkans , North Africa ( Egypt and Carthage ), and Asia Minor . The cities in the East were still lively stages for political participation and remained important for background for religious and political disputes. The degree and extent of discontinuity in

8262-626: The Elder described the Saharan Gaetulian language as very similar or the same as the Numidian one, implying that the Gaetulian language may have been a dialect of Numidian. Not much is known of the Numidian language, and even less of Berber or Proto-Berber languages and dialects at this time, although it is known that for example the language of the native Berbers of Cyrenaica contained many Greek loanwords according to Herodotus . It

8415-684: The Great led to the fall of the Ostrogothic and Vandal Kingdoms, and their reincorporation into the Empire, when the city of Rome and much of Italy and North Africa returned to imperial control. Though most of Italy was soon part of the Kingdom of the Lombards , the Roman Exarchate of Ravenna endured, ensuring the so-called Byzantine Papacy . Justinian constructed the Hagia Sophia , a great example of Byzantine architecture , and

8568-1066: The King son of Gaia the King son of Zilalsan the Judge, in the tenth year since Micipsa ruled, in the year of Shufet the King son of Afshan the King, The Centurion: Shanok son of Banay and Shufet son of Magon son of Tanaku. The ms s kwy Magon son of Yirashtan son of Sadyalan, and gzby : Magon son of Shufet the Centurion son of Abdeshmun the King. Erectors of this property: Ashyan son of Ankikan son of Patash and Arash son of Shufet son of Shanok. These texts are examples of bilingual inscriptions with known meanings, most of which are funerary texts Punic [mn]ṣbt š'ṭbn bn ypmṭt bn plw hbnm š'bnm ʕb'rš bn ʕbdštrt zmr bn 'ṭbn bn ypmṭt bn plw mngy bn wrsbn wb'zrt šl' **t* zzy wṭmn wwrskn hḥršm šyr msdl bn nnpsn w'nkn b[n] 'šy hnskm šbrzl špṭ bll wppy bn bby Punic to English translation The monument of 'ṭbn son of Ypmṭt son of Plw.  Builders of

8721-649: The Levant and Persia overthrew the Sasanian Empire and permanently wrested two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire's territory from Roman control, forming the Rashidun Caliphate . The Byzantine Empire under the Heraclian dynasty began the middle Byzantine period , and together with the establishment of the later 7th century Umayyad Caliphate , generally marks the end of late antiquity. One of

8874-497: The Libyan characters. It has only recently been established that the inscription was originally located on one side of a fake window on the podium . According to the most recent research, the names cited in the inscription are only those of its architect and of representatives of the different professions involved in its construction. The monument was built by the inhabitants of the city for a Numidian prince; some authors believe that it

9027-415: The Numidian era have been identified in the foundations of the temple dedicated to Liber . Although these traces are very faint, they served to disprove the theories of the first archaeologists, including Louis Poinssot, that the Roman and pre-Roman settlements were located on separate sites. The two settlements evidently overlapped. This residence, which dates to the 2nd or 3rd century, stands downhill from

9180-641: The Numidian world has been discovered at Dougga. They are referred to as bazina tombs or circular monument tombs. The Mausoleum of Ateban is one of the very rare examples of royal Numidian architecture. There is another in Sabratha in Libya . Some authors believe that there is a link with the funeral architecture in Anatolia and the necropoleis in Alexandria from the 3rd and 2nd century   BC. This tomb

9333-412: The Temple of August Piety and the small bath dating to the Aghlabid period on the southern flank of the forum. The first Western visitors to have left eyewitness accounts of the ruins reached the site in the 17th century. This trend continued in the 18th century and at the start of the 19th century. The best-preserved monuments, including the mausoleum, were described and, at the end of this period, were

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9486-442: The Third Century the military, political and economic demands made by the Empire made the service in local government to be an onerous duty, often imposed as punishment. Harassed urban dwellers fled to the walled estates of the wealthy to avoid taxes, military service, famine and disease. In the Western Roman Empire especially, many cities destroyed by invasion or civil war in the 3rd century could not be rebuilt. Plague and famine hit

9639-434: The apocalypticism of Islamic theology and in the way the Quran seems to react to contemporary religious and cultural issues shared by the late antique world at large. Further indication that Arabia (and thus the environment in which Islam first developed) was a part of the late antique world is found in the close economic and military relations between Arabia, the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanian Empire. In recent years,

9792-416: The area around the forum transformed into a fort; several important buildings were destroyed in order to provide the necessary materials for its construction. Dougga was never completely abandoned following the Muslim invasions of the area. For a long time, Dougga remained the site of a small village populated by the descendants of the city's former inhabitants, as evidenced by the small mosque situated in

9945-408: The area around the forum was already built upon before the arrival of the Roman colonists. A building dating to the 2nd century   BC has also been discovered nearby. Similarly, Dougga's mausoleum is not isolated but stands within an urban necropolis. Recent finds have disproved earlier theories about the so-called "Numidian walls". The walls around Dougga are in fact not Numidian; they are part of

10098-450: The beauty and movement of the body, but rather, hints at the spiritual reality behind its subjects . Additionally, mirroring the rise of Christianity and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, painting and freestanding sculpture gradually fell from favor in the artistic community. Replacing them were greater interests in mosaics, architecture, and relief sculpture. As the soldier emperors such as Maximinus Thrax (r. 235–238) emerged from

10251-445: The brackets. Underlined words are based on etymologic or onomastic reconstructions from Numidian names. This comparison suggests that Numidian may be closest to the modern Northern Berber languages such as the Zenati languages , Shilha language , and the Kabyle language although the modern northern Berber languages have gone through grammatical changes, and they have also taken loanwords from Arabic, Latin, and French. Kabyle may be

10404-451: The building is not architecturally a basilica. In the former Western Roman Empire almost no great buildings were constructed from the 5th century. A most outstanding example is the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna constructed c.  530 at a cost of 26,000 gold solidi or 360 Roman pounds of gold. City life in the East, though negatively affected by the plague in the 6th–7th centuries, finally collapsed due to Slavic invasions in

10557-435: The chair in the apse reserved in secular structures for the magistrate—or the Emperor himself—as the representative here and now of Christ Pantocrator , the Ruler of All, his characteristic late antique icon . These ecclesiastical basilicas (e.g., St. John Lateran and St. Peter's in Rome) were themselves outdone by Justinian's Hagia Sophia , a staggering display of later Roman/Byzantine power and architectural taste, though

10710-500: The city of Vitoria , though a 12th-century (re)foundation for this city is given in contemporary sources; Lugo id est Luceo in the Asturias , referred to by Isidore of Seville , and Ologicus (perhaps Ologitis ), founded using Basque labour in 621 by Suinthila as a fortification against the Basques, modern Olite . All of these cities were founded for military purposes and at least Reccopolis, Victoriacum, and Ologicus in celebration of victory. A possible fifth Visigothic foundation

10863-439: The city's fortifications erected in late antiquity . Targeted digs have also proven that what had been interpreted as two Numidian towers in the walls are in fact two funeral monuments from the Numidian era reused much later as foundations and a section of defences. The discovery of Libyan and Punic inscriptions at the site provoked a debate on the administration of the city at the time of the Kingdom of Numidia . The debate—about

11016-402: The city, halfway up the hill. The house is particularly interesting because of the way in which it is built to align with the lay of the land; the entrance hall slopes down to a courtyard around which the various rooms were arranged. The market dates from the middle of the 1st century. It took the form of a square 35.5 m × 28 m (116 ft × 92 ft) in size, surrounded by

11169-468: The closest to Numidian, but has absorbed loanwords and phrases from the other languages mentioned. According to many linguists the H at the end of many numidian words were either silent or disappeared by modern times, or that in many cases such as MSWH or MWSNH was possibly used as a replacement for, or possibly was the ancestor of the modern berber ɣ sound. The Thugga inscription is the longest known Numidian inscription as of yet, and has served with

11322-585: The disruptions in the former Western Roman Empire caused by the creation of Germanic kingdoms within her borders beginning with the foedus with the Goths in Aquitania in 418. The general decline of population, technological knowledge and standards of living in Europe during this period became the archetypal example of societal collapse for writers from the Renaissance . As a result of this decline, and

11475-534: The east Libyan writing system, while the regions to the west all the way to approximately the Moulouya river in modern-day Morocco spoke the western Numidian dialect and used the larger and still undecoded west Libyan writing system. The East-Numidian dialect was much more influenced by the Punic language than the West-Numidian, and West-Numidian is thought to be more ancient than East-Numidian. Numidian

11628-410: The emperors or imperial officials. Attempts were made to maintain what was already there. The supply of free grain and oil to 20% of the population of Rome remained intact the last decades of the 5th century. It was once thought that the elite and rich had withdrawn to the private luxuries of their numerous villas and town houses. Scholarly opinion has revised this. They monopolized the higher offices in

11781-616: The end of classical antiquity to the local start of the Middle Ages , from around the late 3rd century up to the 7th or 8th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin depending on location. The popularisation of this periodization in English has generally been credited to historian Peter Brown , who proposed a period between 150 and 750 AD. The Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity defines it as "the period between approximately 250 and 750 AD". Precise boundaries for

11934-484: The end of classical Roman art and the beginnings of medieval art . As a complicated period bridging between Roman art and later medieval styles (such as that of the Byzantines ), the late antique period saw a transition from the classical idealized realism tradition largely influenced by ancient Greek art to the more iconic, stylized art of the Middle Ages. Unlike classical art, late antique art does not emphasize

12087-503: The essential truth of his statement. Classical antiquity can generally be defined as an age of cities; the Greek polis and Roman municipium were locally organised, self-governing bodies of citizens governed by written constitutions. When Rome came to dominate the known world, local initiative and control were gradually subsumed by the ever-growing Imperial bureaucracy; by the Crisis of

12240-408: The expense of amphitheaters, temples, libraries, porticoes, gymnasia, concert and lecture halls, theaters and other amenities of public life. In any case, as Christianity took over, many of these buildings which were associated with pagan cults were neglected in favor of building churches and donating to the poor. The Christian basilica was copied from the civic structure with variations. The bishop took

12393-498: The far-away centralized administration (in concert with the great landowners ), and those who did not; although they were well-born and thoroughly educated, a classical education and the election by the Senate to magistracies was no longer the path to success. Room at the top of late antique society was more bureaucratic and involved increasingly intricate channels of access to the emperor; the plain toga that had identified all members of

12546-513: The fears of the inhabitants of the pagus and to open the door to a later promotion, to the status of a colony. This promotion took place in AD   261, during the reign of Gallienus, following an appeal from Aulus Vitellius Felix Honoratus in Christol's version of events. Thereafter, the defence of the libertas publica was not a question of defending a privilege at risk, but of requesting

12699-512: The first outbreak of the centuries-long first plague pandemic took place. At Ctesiphon , the Sasanians completed the Taq Kasra , the colossal iwan of which is the largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world and the triumph of Sasanian architecture . The middle of the 6th century was characterized by extreme climate events ( the volcanic winter of 535–536 and

12852-695: The fiscal immunity made possible by the region's great wealth and by the emperor's generosity to each municipium at the time of its fusion. During the reign of Gallienus , a certain Aulus Vitellius Felix Honoratus, a well-known individual in Dougga, made an appeal to the emperor "in order to assure the public liberty". Lepelley believes that this is an indication that the city's privilege had been called into question, although Dougga appears to have been at least partially able to preserve its concessions, as evidenced by an inscription to

13005-409: The fiscal immunity of the territory of Carthage ( immunitas perticae Carthaginiensium ). The Dougga civitas had not been granted this concession, so the fusion of pagus with the civitas meant that the citizens of the pagus risked losing their enviable privilege. The liberty of the municipia founded during the reign of Septimius Severus could thus be a reference to

13158-529: The former allowing for quicker access to key materials and easier portability than the fragile scroll, thus fueling the rise of synoptic exegesis , papyrology . Notable in this regard is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine . Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be more distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. These men presented themselves as removed from

13311-440: The forum seems to suggest that they were not built on any earlier foundations. The modern-day location of the remains from the market near the forum should however not be misunderstood as indicating a link between the two. The market was almost completely destroyed during the construction of the Byzantine fort. It was excavated in 1918–1919. The Licinian Baths are interesting for having much of its original walls intact, as well as

13464-419: The honor of "Probus, defender of its liberty". According to Christol though, this interpretation overly restricts the meaning of the word libertas . In Christol's view, it is important not to forget that the emperor's decision in 205 must have been taken in response to a request made by the civitas and must have taken account of the relations that already existed between it and the pagus . It

13617-434: The honor that the pagus attributed to Commodus ( conservator pagi , "protector of the community"). For Christol, the term liberum must be understood in this context and in an abstract sense. This liberty derives from belonging to a city and expresses the end of the civitas ' s dependence, "the elevation of a community of peregrini to the liberty of Roman citizenship", which also served to placate

13770-420: The image that we had of this period. The identification of the temple dedicated to Masinissa beneath the forum disproved Louis Poinssot's theory that the Numidian city stood on the plateau but that it was separate from the newer Roman settlement. The temple, which was erected in the tenth year of Micipsa 's reign (139   BC), is 14 m × 6.3 m (46 ft × 21 ft) wide. It proves that

13923-436: The imperial administration, but they were removed from military command by the late 3rd century. Their focus turned to preserving their vast wealth rather than fighting for it. The basilica , which had functioned as a law court or for imperial reception of foreign dignitaries, became the primary public building in the 4th century. Due to the stress on civic finances, cities spent money on walls, maintaining baths and markets at

14076-434: The interpretation of epigraphic sources—focussed on the question of whether the city was still under Punic influence or whether it was increasingly Berber. Local Berber institutions distinct from any form of Punic authority arose from the Numidian period onwards, but Camps notes that Punic shofets were still in place in several cities, including Dougga, during the Roman era, which is a sign of continuing Punic influence and

14229-541: The medieval period. Justinian rebuilt his birthplace in Illyricum , as Justiniana Prima , more in a gesture of imperium than out of an urbanistic necessity; another "city", was reputed to have been founded, according to Procopius ' panegyric on Justinian's buildings, precisely at the spot where the general Belisarius touched shore in North Africa: the miraculous spring that gushed forth to give them water and

14382-464: The modern berber languages, the ta-...-t circumfix signified feminine version of the word with a silent h added to the end. In the Dougga inscriptions some political positions are mentioned, such as "gld" (lord) which based on this technique, can be translated into the modern berber word "agellid" which originates from the proto-berber word " *a-gəllid". A few verbs have been unambiguously identified in

14535-623: The most clues regarding the language. Numidian script ṢKN•TBGG•BNYFŠ•MSNSN•GLDṮ•WGYY•GLDṮ•WZLLSN•ŠFṬ SBSNDH•GLDṮ•SYSH•GLD•MKWSN ŠFṬ•GLDṮ•WFŠN•MWSNG•ŠNK•WBNY•WŠNK•DŠFṬ•WM WTNKW•MṢṢKW•MGN•WYRŠTB•WSDYLN•GẒB•MGN•WŠFṬ•MW WŠMN•GLDṮ•GLDGMYL•ZMR•WMSNF•WŠMN•GLDMṢK•M WŠYN•GLDṮ•WMGN•GLDṮ•ṬNYN•ŠYN•WNKKN•WFṬŠ•DR ŠFṬ•WŠNK• Normalization and adding of known or possible vowels əṣk(ə)-n Tubgag BNYFŠ[?] Masnsen a-gəllidṯ u-Gayya a-gəllidṯ u-Zelalsen šufeṭ Asəbbas NDH a-gəllidṯ(?) s-yusa a-gəllid Mikiwsan Translation from Punic The people of Thugga built this temple for Masinissa

14688-458: The most important transformations in late antiquity was the formation and evolution of the Abrahamic religions : Christianity , Rabbinic Judaism and, eventually, Islam . A milestone in the spread of Christianity was the conversion of Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) in 312, as claimed by his Christian panegyrist Eusebius of Caesarea , although the sincerity of his conversion

14841-409: The most renowned representatives. On the other hand, authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century) and Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) were able to keep the tradition of classical Hellenistic historiography alive in the Byzantine empire. Due to several factors of the era, among them the political instability and the constant military threats, treatises on war became a popular genre with

14994-566: The name of king Massinissa (MSNSN in Libyco-Berber) was " mas-nsen " (their seignor). Much of the onomastic work on the Numidian language was done by Salem Chaker , who through his work also help in decoding a few words in the language through dissecting known names. Here is a comparison of the few known Numidian words to modern Northern Berber languages and the Tamashek language. Normalized words with vowels added are written in

15147-449: The new style, shows the contrast especially clearly. In nearly all artistic media, simpler shapes were adopted and once natural designs were abstracted. Additionally hierarchy of scale overtook the preeminence of perspective and other classical models for representing spatial organization. From c.  300 Early Christian art began to create new public forms, which now included sculpture , previously distrusted by Christians as it

15300-438: The object of architectural studies. The establishment of France 's Tunisian protectorate in 1881 led to the creation of a national antiquities institute ( French : Institut national du patrimoine ), for which the excavation of the site at Dougga was a priority from 1901, parallel to the works carried out at Carthage . The works at Dougga concentrated at first on the area around the forum; other discoveries ensured that there

15453-407: The one hand that this must be a reference to the relations between the city and Rome and on the other hand that the term can cover a range of diverse privileges of differing degrees. It is known that the territory of Carthage, to which the Dougga pagus belonged until AD   205, enjoyed such privileges: the inhabitants of the pagus even sent an appeal during Trajan 's reign to defend

15606-465: The past been undertaken to uncover the Roman sepulchres, today they have been reclaimed in part by olive trees . The different necropoleis mark the zones of settlement at Dougga. There are five areas that have been identified as necropoleis: the first in the northeast, around the Temple of Saturn and the Victoria Church, the second in the northwest, a zone which also encompasses the dolmens on

15759-501: The period are a continuing matter of debate. In the West, its end was earlier, with the start of the Early Middle Ages typically placed in the 6th century, or even earlier on the edges of the Western Roman Empire . The term Spätantike , literally "late antiquity", has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. It was given currency in English partly by

15912-472: The period of late antiquity has become a major focus in the fields of Quranic studies and Islamic origins. The late antique period also saw a wholesale transformation of the political and social basis of life in and around the Roman Empire . The Roman citizen elite in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, under the pressure of taxation and the ruinous cost of presenting spectacular public entertainments in

16065-431: The presence of a necropolis with dolmens , the most ancient archaeological find at Dougga, a sanctuary dedicated to Ba'al Hammon , neo-Punic steles , a mausoleum, architectural fragments, and a temple dedicated to Masinissa , the remains of which were found during archaeological excavations. Even though our knowledge of the city before the Roman conquest remains very limited, recent archaeological finds have revolutionized

16218-428: The preservation of certain elements of Punic civilization well after the fall of Carthage. The Romans granted Dougga the status of an indigenous city ( Latin : civitas ) following their conquest of the region. The creation of the colony of Carthage during the reign of Augustus complicated Dougga's institutional status. The city was included in the territory ( pertica ) of the Roman colony, but around this time,

16371-738: The provinces in the 3rd century, they brought with them their own regional influences and artistic tastes. For example, artists jettisoned the classical portrayal of the human body for one that was more rigid and frontal. This is markedly evident in the combined porphyry Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs in Venice . With these stubby figures clutching each other and their swords, all individualism , naturalism , Roman verism , and Greek idealism diminish. The Arch of Constantine in Rome, which re-used earlier classicising reliefs together with ones in

16524-449: The public thoroughfare, a transformation that was to result in the souk (marketplace). Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by the attraction of saintly shrines and relics. In Roman Britain , the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of dark earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. The city of Rome went from

16677-399: The quarters that surround the forum and the principal public monuments in the city, in an area where the streets are winding. The trifolium villa, named after a clover -shaped room that was without a doubt used as a triclinium , is the largest private house excavated so far at Dougga. The house had two storeys, but there is almost nothing left of the upper storey. It stands in the south of

16830-402: The reign of Marcus Aurelius , the city was granted Roman law ; from this moment onward, the magistrates automatically received Roman citizenship and the rights of the city's inhabitants became similar to those of the Roman citizens. During the same era, the pagus won a certain degree of autonomy from Carthage; it was able to receive bequests and administer public funds. Nonetheless, it

16983-482: The relative scarcity of historical records from Europe in particular, the period from roughly the early fifth century until the Carolingian Renaissance (or later still) was referred to as the " Dark Ages ". This term has mostly been abandoned as a name for a historiographical epoch, being replaced by "Late Antiquity" in the periodization of the late Western Roman Empire, the early Byzantine Empire and

17136-465: The rise of Islam, two main theses prevail. On the one hand, there is the traditional view, as espoused by most historians prior to the second half of the twentieth century (and after) and by Muslim scholars. This view, the so-called "out of Arabia"-thesis, holds that Islam as a phenomenon was a new, alien element in the late antique world. Related to this is the Pirenne Thesis , according to which

17289-491: The rise of literary cultures in Syriac , Armenian , Georgian , Ethiopic , Arabic , and Coptic . It also marks a shift in literary style, with a preference for encyclopedic works in a dense and allusive style, consisting of summaries of earlier works (anthologies, epitomes) often dressed up in elaborate allegorical garb (e.g., De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae [The Marriage of Mercury and Philology] of Martianus Capella and

17442-723: The rural population that straightway abandoned their ploughshares for civilised life within the new walls, lend a certain taste of unreality to the project. In mainland Greece, the inhabitants of Sparta , Argos and Corinth abandoned their cities for fortified sites in nearby high places; the fortified heights of Acrocorinth are typical of Byzantine urban sites in Greece. In Italy, populations that had clustered within reach of Roman roads began to withdraw from them, as potential avenues of intrusion, and to rebuild in typically constricted fashion round an isolated fortified promontory, or rocca ; Cameron notes similar movement of populations in

17595-415: The same period, the last inhabitants of the site were evicted and relocated to a village located on the plain several kilometers from the antique site, which is named New Dougga . In 1991, the decision was taken to make the site into a national archaeological park. A cooperative scientific programme aims in particular to promote the study of the inscriptions at the site and the pagan temples. In 1997, Dougga

17748-593: The shared cultural horizon of the late antique world explains the character of Islam and its development. Such historians point to similarities with other late antique religions and philosophies—especially Christianity—in the prominent role and manifestations of piety in Islam, in Islamic asceticism and the role of "holy persons", in the pattern of universalist, homogeneous monotheism tied to worldly and military power, in early Islamic engagement with Greek schools of thought, in

17901-413: The side of the hill, so that the city must have resembled "a compact mass", according to Hédi Slim Early archaeological digs concentrated on public buildings, which meant that private buildings tended at first to be uncovered at the ends of the trenches dug for this purpose. Later, trenches were cut with the purpose of exposing particularly characteristic private buildings. Traces of a residence dating to

18054-444: The site's particularly craggy terrain and of earlier constructions, which led them to abandon the normal layout of Roman settlements, as is also particularly evident in places such as Timgad . Recent archaeological digs have confirmed the continuity in the city's urban development. The heart of the city has always been at the top of the hill, where the forum replaced the Numidian agora . As Dougga developed, urban construction occupied

18207-455: The site's position atop an easily defensible plateau . The name was borrowed into Latin as Thugga. Once it was granted "free status", it was formally refounded and known as Municipium Septimium Aurelium Liberum Thugga ; "Septimium" and "Aurelium" are references to the "new" town's "founders" ( conditores ), Septimius Severus and M. Aurelius Antoninus (i.e., Caracalla ). For treatment of liberum , see below. Once Dougga received

18360-490: The site, the third in the west, between the Aïn Mizeb and Aïn El Hammam cisterns and to the north of the Temple of Juno Caelestis, the fourth and the fifth in the south and the south-east, one around the mausoleum and the other around Septimius Severus' triumphal arch . The hypogeum is a half-buried edifice from the 3rd century. It was erected in the middle of the oldest necropolis, which was excavated in 1913. The hypogeum

18513-565: The smaller cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. The urban continuity of Constantinople is the outstanding example of the Mediterranean world; of the two great cities of lesser rank, Antioch was devastated by the Persian sack of 540, followed by the plague of Justinian (542 onwards) and completed by earthquake, while Alexandria survived its Islamic transformation, to suffer incremental decline in favour of Cairo in

18666-433: The status of a Roman colony, it was formally known as Colonia Licinia Septimia Aurelia Alexandriana Thuggensis . In present-day Berber , it is known as either Dugga or Tugga . That was borrowed into Arabic as Doggā ( Arabic : دڨة or دقة ) and Dougga is a French transcription of this Arabic name. The archaeological site is located 4.6 km (2.9 mi) SSW of the modern town of Téboursouk on

18819-420: The stones: ʕb'rš son of ʕbdštrt; Zmr son of 'ṭbn son of Ypmṭt son of Plw; Mngy son of Wrsbn.  And for its ???, Zzy son of Ṭmn and Wrskn.  Workers of the wood: Msdl son of Nnpsn and 'nkn son of 'šy. Casters of the iron: Šfṭ son of Bll and Ppy son of Bby. Numidian ****N WYFMṬT W*******DRŠ WWDŠTR Late antiquity Late antiquity is sometimes defined as spanning from

18972-574: The subject of archaeological digs, which have also uncovered skeletons and ceramic models. Although it is difficult to put a date on the erection of the dolmens, as they were in use until the dawn of the Christian era, it seems likely that they date from at least 2000 years   BC. Gabriel Camps has suggested that a link to Sicily . He has made the same suggestion for the " haouanet " tombs found in Algeria and Tunisia . A type of tomb unique to

19125-430: The surrounding region. For the time being, visitors with sufficient time can appreciate Dougga, not only because of its many ruins but also for its olive groves, which give the site a unique ambiance. From AD   205, when the city ( civitas ) and community ( pagus ) fused into one municipality ( municipium ), Dougga bore the title liberum , whose significance is not immediately clear. The term appears in

19278-454: The title of Thibursicum Bure. Thibursicum Bure is however an exception to the rule; the titles of the other municipia including the term liberum do not include the names of any divinities, and this hypothesis has therefore been abandoned. Alternatively, liberum is taken as a reference to free status ( libertas , "liberty"). This interpretation is confirmed by an inscription found at Dougga that honors Alexander Severus as

19431-442: The titles of a certain number of other municipia also founded at the same time: Thibursicum Bure , Aulodes, and Thysdrus . Several interpretations of its meaning have been suggested. According to Merlin and Poinssot , the term derives from the name of the god Liber , in whose honor a temple was erected at Dougga. The epithet Liberum would thus follow the same pattern as Frugifer and Concordia , which appear in

19584-485: The traditional cursus honorum , had found under the Antonines that security could be obtained only by combining their established roles in the local town with new ones as servants and representatives of a distant emperor and his traveling court. After Constantine centralized the government in his new capital of Constantinople (dedicated in 330), the late antique upper classes were divided among those who had access to

19737-406: The traditional Roman motivations of public and private life marked by pride, ambition and kinship solidarity, and differing from the married pagan leadership. Unlike later strictures on priestly celibacy , celibacy in late antique Christianity sometimes took the form of abstinence from sexual relations after marriage, and it came to be the expected norm for urban clergy . Celibate and detached,

19890-439: The two communities closer together. Notable members of the peregrini increasingly adopted Roman culture and behavior, became Roman citizens, and the councils of the two communities began to take decisions in unison. The increasing closeness of the communities was facilitated at first by their geographic proximity—there was no physical distinction between their two settlements—and then later by institutional arrangements. During

20043-469: The type associated with certain free cities such as Aphrodisias in Asia Minor . Veyne has thus suggested that Dougga's "freedom" is nothing but an expression of the concept of liberty without any legal meaning; obtaining the status of a municipium had freed the city of its subjugation and enabled it to adorn itself with the "ornaments of liberty" ( ornamenta libertatis ). The city's liberty

20196-541: The upper clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables, the potentes or dynatoi . Islam appeared in the 7th century, spurring Arab armies to invade the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire of Persia , destroying the latter. After conquering all of North Africa and Visigothic Spain , the Islamic invasion was halted by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in modern France . On

20349-476: The urban class in greater proportion, and thus the people who knew how to keep civic services running. Perhaps the greatest blow came in the wake of the extreme weather events of 535–536 and subsequent Plague of Justinian , when the remaining trade networks ensured the Plague spread to the remaining commercial cities. The impact of this outbreak of plague has recently been disputed. The end of classical antiquity

20502-400: The various Old Libyc writings have been interpreted. It may be possible that the language of the neighbouring Mauri people of modern-day Morocco may have been a dialect of the larger Numidian, although there are little to no sources or researches into the language. If Numidian was a Berber language then it is known that by that stage the breakup of Proto-Berber into various Berber languages

20655-434: The various inscriptions. Comparison with modern Berber suggests that ṣkn, probably read as "eṣ(ə)k-n based on modern berber comparison which means"built" is to be analysed as ṣk "build" plus -n, marking 3pl subject agreement ( -ən). An example of translation using this method can be demonstrated on a part of a Numidian inscription which is read as " Msnsn. gldt. w-gjj ." "Msnsn" is the name of king Massinissa while "gldt"

20808-542: The writings of Peter Brown , whose survey The World of Late Antiquity (1971) revised the Gibbon view of a stale and ossified Classical culture, in favour of a vibrant time of renewals and beginnings, and whose The Making of Late Antiquity offered a new paradigm of understanding the changes in Western culture of the time in order to confront Sir Richard Southern 's The Making of the Middle Ages . The continuities between

20961-702: Was a key figure in many important events in Christian history , as he convened and attended the first ecumenical council of bishops at Nicaea in 325, subsidized the building of churches and sanctuaries such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem , and involved himself in questions such as the timing of Christ's resurrection and its relation to the Passover . The birth of Christian monasticism

21114-452: Was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites . Despite its importance and its exceptional state, Dougga remains off the beaten track for many tourists and receives only about 50,000 visitors per year. In order to make it more attractive, the construction of an on-site museum is being considered, while the national antiquities institute has established a website presenting the site and

21267-465: Was an almost constant series of digs at the site until 1939. Alongside these excavations, work was conducted to restore the capitol, of which only the front and the base of the wall of the cella were still standing, and to restore the mausoleum, particularly between 1908 and 1910 . After Tunisia's independence, other buildings were excavated, including the Temple of Caracalla's Victory in Germany. During

21420-597: Was celebrated just as its dignity was extolled; the emperor Probus is a "preserver of liberty and dignity" ( conservator libertatis et dignitatis ). Gascou , in line with Veyne's interpretation, describes the situation thus: " Liberum , in Thugga ' s title, is a term [...] with which the city, which had waited a long time for the status of a municipium, is happy to flatter itself". Despite Gascou's conclusion, efforts have been made more recently to identify concrete aspects of Dougga's liberty. Lepelley believes on

21573-592: Was constructed to supply it with water, and the tallest Roman triumphal columns were erected there. Migrations of Germanic , Hunnic , and Slavic tribes disrupted Roman rule from the late 4th century onwards, culminating first in the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 and subsequent Sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455, part of the eventual collapse of the Empire in the West itself by 476. The Western Empire

21726-407: Was designed to house funeral urns in small niches in the walls; at the time of its discovery, it contained sarcophagi , which suggests that it was in use for a long time. Dougga still contains two triumphal arches , which are in different states of disrepair. Septimius Severus 's arch, which is heavily damaged, stands close to the mausoleum and on the route leading from Carthage to Théveste . It

21879-475: Was erected in AD   205. Alexander Severus' arch , which dates from 222 to 235, is relatively well preserved, despite the loss of its upper elements. It is equidistant from the capitol and the Temple of Juno Caelestis. Its arcade is 4 m (13 ft) tall. A third triumphal arch, dating from the Tetrarchy , has been completely lost. The city forum, which is 924 m (9,950 sq ft) in size

22032-463: Was influenced mostly by Punic and then Latin , although Numidian and even some modern Berber vocabulary seem to have been also slightly influenced by the Paleohispanic languages and possibly by other Pre-Indo-European languages . Not much is known about the variations of the old Libyc language(s) as none of them have been fully deciphered, and outside of some east-Numidian steles none of

22185-410: Was intended for Massinissa The monument owes its current appearance to the work of French archaeologist Louis Poinssot , who essentially reconstructed it from pieces that were left lying on the ground. The tomb is accessed via a pedestal with five steps. On the northern side of the podium (the lowest of three levels in the monument), there is an opening to the funeral chamber that is closed with

22338-416: Was not until AD   205, during the reign of Septimius Severus , that the two communities came together as one municipality ( municipium ), made "free" (see below) while Carthage's pertica was reduced. The city was supported by the euergetism of its great families of wealthy individuals, which sometimes reached exorbitant levels, while its interests were successfully represented by appeals to

22491-515: Was placed on demonstrating a symbolic fact rather than on rendering a realistic scene. As time progressed during the late antique period, art become more concerned with biblical themes and influenced by interactions of Christianity with the Roman state. Within this Christian subcategory of Roman art, dramatic changes were also taking place in the Depiction of Jesus . Jesus Christ had been more commonly depicted as an itinerant philosopher, teacher or as

22644-571: Was replaced by the so-called barbarian kingdoms , with the Arian Christian Ostrogothic Kingdom ruling Rome from Ravenna . The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman , Germanic, and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe . In the 6th century, Roman imperial rule continued in the East, and the Byzantine-Sasanian wars continued. The campaigns of Justinian

22797-571: Was so important in pagan worship. Sarcophagi carved in relief had already become highly elaborate, and Christian versions adopted new styles, showing a series of different tightly packed scenes rather than one overall image (usually derived from Greek history painting ) as was the norm. Soon the scenes were split into two registers, as in the Dogmatic Sarcophagus or the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (the last of these exemplifying

22950-461: Was still not fully complete, and thus the ancient Berber languages of the time were very similar to each other, even more so than the modern ones. In circa 500 B.C various nomadic Berber groups penetrated the Sahara from the north, corresponding the area of the later Gaetulians . Although the area where these nomads lived yielded no writing and thus is incomparable to Numidian, it is known that Pliny

23103-423: Was the autonomy that the civitas had achieved during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and the granting of Roman law that raised the specter of a fusion of the two communities, which would without a doubt have provoked a certain unease in the pagus . The inhabitants of the pagus would have expressed "concern or even refusal when faced with the pretensions of their closest neighbors". This would explain

23256-464: Was therefore a Berber language . The Berber branch of Afro-Asiatic is sometimes called Libyco-Berber since it is not certain whether Numidian would fall within the modern Berber languages or form a sister branch to them. Some theorize that it constituted a group of its own, as there is no trace of the noun-case system shared by the modern Berber languages. However, Proto-Berber is theorized to have no grammatical case either, which would also imply

23409-470: Was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values. Despite this, the language has barely been transcribed and only a few words are known. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The language is scarcely attested and can be confidently identified only as belonging to

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