Chapter XVIII

DEPARTURE FROM SUSA — ES-SAHEL — EFFECTS OF THE DISFORESTING OF
TUNIS — OLIVE-TREES — EL-DJEM.

On the 7th of April we left Susa in a carriage, having sent our horses and mules on in advance the night before. The journey occupied us ten hours, but the roads were very heavy, owing to a smart shower of rain which had just fallen; under favourable circumstances, the journey ought to have been done in eight hours.

We left by the Bab el-Bahr, and, crossing the Mohammedan cemetery, passed the Bab el-Djidid and the Bab el-Gharbi, and thence took a southern direction. At a distance of three miles is Zaouiat Susa, a poor little village, situated in the midst of a rich plain covered with olive-trees; beyond, on both sides of the road, are Roman ruins, but of no interest. At fifteen miles is Menzel, the only convenient resting-place between Susa and El-Djem. The wayside fountain here is the only water on the road. Beyond this the olive-trees cease, and the traveller enters a wide and treeless plain, part of the district called Es-Sahel, or coast region, extremely fertile when an unusual quantity of rain has fallen, but at other times almost uncultivated, and apparently hardly susceptible of cultivation.

We subsequently journeyed for many days in this region; everywhere we found extensive traces of Roman occupation—vast Roman cities as well as isolated posts, proving beyond doubt that it was at one time capable of supporting a dense population. The entire Regency of Tunis must, during the Roman occupation, have contained little short of twenty million inhabitants, while now, the most favourable estimate places the population at not more than a million and a half. Day after day, in traversing these arid and treeless plains, intersected by watercourses in which no water flows, the soil covered with sand and stones incapable of supporting vegetable life, we pondered over the causes which had turned a region once so fertile almost into a desert. The causes, indeed, are not difficult to find: they are written by the hand of nature on every hill we traversed, and confirmed by the daily actions of the inhabitants themselves. We know that at one time the country was covered with forests. I myself have travelled for days over plains where not a tree exists, and yet where ruins of Roman oil mills were frequently met with. Ibn Khaldoun, in his history of the Berbers, says: ‘El-Kahina caused all the villages and farms throughout the country to be destroyed, so that the vast region between Tripoli and Tangiers, which had the appearance of an immense thicket, under the shade of which rose a multitude of villages touching each other, now offered no other aspect than that of ruins.’[128] Even in modern days the same destruction of forests has been continued, if not wantonly or for purposes of defence, as in the time of the early Arab conquerors, still as surely, by the carelessness of their descendants, who never hesitate to set fire to a wood to improve the pasturage, or to cut down a tree when timber is required, but who never dream of planting another, or even of protecting those which spring up spontaneously, from being destroyed by their flocks and herds.

In Bruce’s notes, written 110 years ago, frequent allusion is made to forests through which he passed, where not a tree is now to be seen, and this is a work of destruction which must go on with ever accelerating rapidity year after year.

Nothing is more certain than that forests and tracts of brushwood not only prevent the evaporation of moisture by protecting the surface of the earth from the sun’s rays, but they serve to retain the light clouds which otherwise would be dissipated, until they attain sufficient consistence to descend in rain or refreshing mists. A hillside deprived of the forest whose foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the power of generating vegetable life at all. The rich mould gets washed by winter rains into the valleys; in the summer months the sand is blown down on the top of this; succeeding rains carry down stones and gravel, till very soon all the most fertile portions of the soil disappear, leaving a residuum which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilised by an exceptional amount of moisture, which as time progresses must become rarer and rarer, like the efforts of the spendthrift to live off income, and spending every year a portion of his capital.

In several places, where deep cuttings had been made by winter torrents, I distinctly observed layers of alluvion several feet below the surface, underlying strata of water-worn stones and barren sand.

Still, in years when rain is very abundant, heavy crops are produced in some places. Mr. Wood, in a late commercial report, mentions single stalks of barley producing 80 and 120 ears, or 2,000 and 3,000 separate grains.

What the date is to the Sahara, the olive is to the Sahel; it thrives almost everywhere, and seems to content itself with the most brackish water, or even without any except that which falls from heaven during the winter months. All along the coast there are fine plantations, containing glorious old trees, but there is not the least sign of a young one being planted, or of anyone attempting to increase the size of the grove bequeathed to him by his ancestors. During all my travels in Tunis I only saw one solitary exception to this, in the plantation of General Kheir-ed-din before alluded to.

There need practically be no limit to the cultivation of the olive-tree in Tunis; the Sahel is its favourite region, but the mountains of the Tell are covered with wild trees of great size and beauty, and there is reason to believe that they would, if grafted, yield more abundantly than in the Sahel, in the same manner that the olive-trees of Kabylia in Algeria are more productive than those of the districts lower down.

The oil made in Tunis is inferior to that of Italy, and even to that now made in Algeria, but this is owing, not to any want of excellence in the fruit, but to the primitive manner in which it is manufactured, and to the want of cleanliness in subsequently storing it, in which no progress has been made during many centuries.

On our arrival at El-Djem we pitched our new tent, one of Edgington’s, for the first time, and were delighted with the ease with which it was put up, and with the great amount of accommodation it contained. I thought often of the dear friends at home who had sent it out to me; it proved an inestimable comfort during all our wanderings; but were I to make the journey again, I should be disposed to go without any tent at all, and with a much smaller amount of luggage than we took with us. It is rare that the traveller cannot find an Arab tent, an old ruin, or shelter of some kind at night, and the convenience of travelling lightly is so great as to outweigh all considerations of comfort.

At El-Djem, for instance, there was a _fonduk_, or caravanserail, in which a large party could find shelter; the accommodation is, of course, very simple, and the fleas abundant, but these are details which should not affect the traveller’s equanimity. The one great desideratum should be to reduce the number of baggage animals to the smallest possible number. We had sometimes to modify our journey, and to avoid places where there were interesting ruins, owing to the impossibility of obtaining sufficient barley for our horses.

There is nothing of interest at El-Djem, save its amphitheatre, which may be said to be all that remains to mark the site of the ancient city of Thysdrus, or Thysdritana Colonia. The modern village is built entirely from its ruins, and all that is visible of the city itself are a few foundations and tombs, towards the north-west.

This city is first mentioned in history by Hirtius.[129] After the defeat of Scipio at Thapsus it submitted to Cæsar, who condemned it to a fine of corn, proportionate to its small importance.[130] It is also mentioned by Pliny, by Ptolemy and in the tables of Peutinger. It was here that the pro-consul Gordian first set up the standard of rebellion against Maximin, and was proclaimed Emperor in A.D. 238, in his 80th year. He did not long live to enjoy his exalted dignity; he was defeated in battle by Capellianus, procurator of Numidia; his son was slain, and he perished by his own hands after having worn the purple for less than two months. Shaw thinks that the amphitheatre may have been founded by him in gratitude, and states that in one of the medals of the younger Gordian there is the representation of an amphitheatre, not hitherto accounted for by the medalists;[131] but the medal here alluded to is most probably one of Gordian III., bearing on one side the Coliseum at Rome, which was restored in his reign, with the inscription _Munificentia Gordiani Aug_.

The solidity of the masonry and the vast size of this building have induced the Arabs at various periods of their history to convert it into a fortress; it has frequently been besieged, and on each occasion, no doubt, to the great destruction of the fabric. The first instance on record is during the wars of the early Arab conquerors. After El-Kahina had defeated Hassan ibn Näaman, and driven him as far as Tripoli, the latter received considerable reinforcements from Egypt, and again set out for the conquest of Ifrikia, about 693. El-Kahina intrenched herself in the amphitheatre, where she sustained a long siege before being compelled to evacuate it. The name of _Kasr el-Kahina_—the palace, or fortress, of the sorceress—attached itself to the building for many ages after this event.

Bruce made careful preparations to illustrate this monument at his leisure, but none of the drawings in Lady Thurlow’s possession are completed—they are, in fact, mere rough working sketches. He says:—

The sections, elevations, and plans, with the whole detail of its parts, are in the King’s Collection.

The Kinnaird collection, however, contains only:—

1. A very faint drawing in pencil of exterior of amphitheatre on its major axis: the details of the lower storey have not been filled in.

2. Pencil sketch of interior on major axis.

3. Pencil sketch of interior on minor axis, showing the extent of the breach which then existed.

4. Pencil sketch, tinted in Indian ink, of general plan, covered with notes and dimensions.

5. Drawing in pencil and Indian ink of one quarter of plan of the lowest stages of amphitheatre, showing podium of arena and staircases [Pl. XI.]

6. Drawing in pencil and Indian ink of one quarter of plan of one of the upper stages of the amphitheatre.

7. Careful drawing to scale in pencil of general section, numerous notes, and dimensions on the face, and sketches of parts of the plan on the back.

8. Another rougher sketch in pencil.

9. Rough sketch in ink of section with elevation.

10. Drawing in pencil of section of external wall, with dimensions figured thereon.

The only one of these drawings sufficiently completed to admit of reproduction is the general ground plan, which is of great interest [Pl. XI.] Many sketches of the building itself have been published, generally very inaccurate; but no subsequent traveller ever took sufficiently precise measurements to permit the construction of a ground plan. I have added, by permission of an esteemed friend (Dr. Ritchie, of Belfast), two autotypes [Pl. XII. and XIII.] of photographs taken by his son, the late Mr. Frank Ritchie. One represents a general view of the exterior of the edifice, and the other the interior of the lower corridor. It was almost the last act of his life to take these photographs. ‘Sit tibi terra levis!’

This edifice offers the same exterior divisions as the principal monuments of a similar kind built elsewhere by the Romans, three outside open galleries, or arcades, rising one above another, crowned by a fourth storey with windows. But at El-Djem the architect seems to have tried to surpass, in some respects, the magnificence of existing structures. In the Coliseum at Rome the lower storey is decorated with a Doric half-engaged order, the second with an Ionic, and the third with a Corinthian. The fourth storey was pierced by windows like this one, but pilasters alone are employed, so that the general aspect is that of three storeys, gradually increasing in magnificence as they rise, crowned by a high attic, which supported the masts destined to receive the ropes of the velum. In many other amphitheatres the Doric order is alone employed. But here, at El-Djem, the orders of the first and third galleries are Corinthian; the middle one is composite; the fourth was probably Corinthian also, if it ever was completed.

J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.

AMPHITHEATRE OF THYSDRUS (EL DJEM)

PLAN OF LOWER STOREY

FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL DRAWING BY BRUCE IN PENCIL AND INDIAN INK.

HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]

AMPHITHEATRE OF TYSDRUS (EL-DJEM.)

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. RITCHIE ESQUIRE.

HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]

AMPHITHEATRE OF TYSDRUS (EL DJEM.)

CORRIDOR OF FIRST STOREY.

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY F. RITCHIE ESQUIRE.]

The windows of the fourth storey of the Coliseum are square-headed, as was generally the case in monuments of this kind; but at El-Djem the heads of the windows are neither straight nor semicircular, but segmental, and they are built as true arches, with voussoirs. They are placed at every third interpilaster.

The study of these African monuments would be very interesting to one who would undertake to write the history of arch and vault building. Specimens are frequently met with amongst these ruins, showing that problems had been solved at a very early date in Africa, which many stereotomists suppose to have been known only for a few centuries.

Each of the three lower storeys possessed sixty-four columns and arches, and at each extremity was a grand entrance, but the west one is included in the breach made by Mohammed Bey in 1697, to prevent the building being again used as a fortress. Since then the work of destruction has gone on rapidly, and now fully one-third of the whole of the perimeter is destroyed.

The interior of the amphitheatre has suffered much more than the exterior, doubtless from the fact that it has so often served as a fortress, and partly from the material having been taken to block up the lower galleries, and to build the modern village. Almost all the steps have disappeared, although these are shown in Bruce’s sections as rising in a great bank or incline, and with but one slight break, from the arena to the third storey, and again between the top of this third storey and the face of the attic. El-Bekri mentions this disposition of seats; he says, ‘The height is 24 toises; all the interior is disposed in steps from bottom to top.’[132]

Bruce’s remarks regarding El-Djem are very brief, but they cause the utmost regret that his finished drawings, and especially the subterranean plan of the building, should not be forthcoming.

I turned again to the north-west, and came to Tisdrus, as it was anciently called—now El-Gemme—where there is a large and spacious amphitheatre, perfect, as to the desolation of time, had not Mahomet Bey blown up four arches of it from the foundation, that it might not serve as a fortress to the rebel Arabs. The sections, elevations, and plans, with the whole detail of its parts, are in the King’s Collection. I have still a subterraneous horizontal section to add to it, an entrance to which I forced open in my journey along the coast to Tripoli, and an explanation[133] of all its parts, when I shall have time and a little assistance, but its sketch is perfectly completed already. This was made so as to be filled up with water by means of a sluice and aqueduct, which are still entire. The water rose up in the arena through a large square hole, faced with hewn stone in the middle, when there was occasion for water games or naumachiæ.

Dr. Shaw imagines that this was intended to contain the pillars that supported the velum, which protected the spectators from the influence of the sun. It might have served for both purposes, but it seems to be too large for the latter; though I confess, the more I have considered the size and construction of these amphitheatres, the less I have been able to form an idea concerning this velum, or the manner in which it served the people, how it was secured, and how it was removed.[134] This was the last ancient building I visited in the kingdom of Tunis, and I believe I may confidently say that there is not, either in the territory of Algiers or Tunis, a fragment of good taste of which I have not brought a drawing to Britain.

There is an interesting tradition regarding the subterraneous gallery recorded by El-Bekri,[135] who says that El-Kahina, the celebrated chieftainess of the Aures, having been besieged in this amphitheatre, which she had converted into a fortress, caused a passage to be excavated in the rock as far as Sallecta, large enough to permit several horsemen in line to pass along. By this means she obtained supplies of provisions, and everything she required.

The Sheikh et-Tidjani also says that when El-Djem was subsequently attacked by Yehia ibn Ishak el-Mayorki, Prince of the Balearic Islands, about the six hundredth year of the Hedjira, he was soon compelled to raise the siege after a most ignominious manner. The defenders, to show how well they were supplied with provisions, threw down fresh fish at their besiegers, which they had obtained by means of the subterranean passage to Sallecta.[136] These traditions linger amongst the people of El-Djem to the present day. Careful excavations in the basement of this structure could hardly fail to be richly rewarded.

It is by no means certain that this amphitheatre ever was completed. If we may judge from Bruce’s sketches, as well as the actual condition of the monument, it is doubtful whether the attic ever was decorated with pillars, though undoubtedly some of the pedestals of this order were placed in position. Some of the ornamental details also are in an unfinished condition. The keystones of the arches of the lowest order were probably all intended to be sculptured, as in the amphitheatre of Capua; but they are still in their original rough condition, with the exception of two, one of which bears the head of a human being, and the other that of a lion. Still, neither of these facts actually proves that the amphitheatre remained uncompleted; in many similar buildings it was never intended to finish all the details with minute care, and even in the Coliseum some of the capitals are but roughly sketched out.

The outside gallery on the ground floor, where most perfect, has been utilised by the Arabs as store-rooms for their corn and forage; some of the arches are converted into shops, and there is evidence that the upper galleries also have at some time or other been converted into dwellings, holes in the masonry for the reception of joists being visible in every direction.

Several inscriptions have been found here; the most important has been preserved in the enclosure of the Chapel of St. Louis at Carthage, and has been often quoted: the name of the town is twice mentioned in it, once as Thysdrus, and again as Thysdritana Colonia.[137]

A number of rude Arabic or Cufic inscriptions, accompanied by representations of swords and daggers, have been scratched on the exterior wall above the principal entrance, and one, which is certainly of Berber origin, may date from the era of El-Kahina.

I am not aware of any sculpture now existing which has been found at this place. Desfontaines purchased a small head of Diana in white marble during his visit in 1784, and he mentions a report current that several fine statues had formerly been carried off by English travellers.[138]

The stone of which the amphitheatre is built was obtained from Sallecta on the sea-coast: the Sallecti of the tables of Peutinger and the Syllectum of Procopius, the first resting-place of Belisarius in his march from Caput Vada to Carthage. The natives assured me that between this place and El-Djem the remains of the ancient paved road can easily be traced. The stone itself is of the youngest geological formation (Pliocene age), belonging to the raised coast-beaches found at from 200 to 600 feet above the present level of the Mediterranean. It is a somewhat fine-grained marine shell-limestone, with an admixture of siliceous sand full of fossil shells of considerable size, such as _Pectunculus_ and _Carduum_, but no microscopic forms of shells are visible amongst the fine grains of shell-sand which make up the rock. Such a material is worked with the utmost facility; indeed, it may be cut with an axe, but it is not susceptible of being dressed with the same precision as more compact stone. The consequence is that the masonry is far inferior to the finest specimens of Roman work in Africa. Mortar has been plentifully used between the joints, and the stones are neither as large nor as closely fitted as usual; the average dimensions are—length, 37⅜ inches, and height of courses, 19⅝ inches.

Another feature of the construction of this building, never seen in others of the best period of Roman art, is the manner in which the appearance of nearly all the stones has been spoilt by triangular _lewis holes_ being cut in their _exterior_ faces, for the purpose of raising them into position. This gives the masonry a very slovenly appearance. The dimensions given by Bruce are:

Ft. In.

Length of entire structure on major axis 488 0

„ „ minor axis 400 0

Length of arena, major axis 213 0

„ „ minor axis 172 0

Depth of foundations 32 11

Height of first stage to impost of arch 21 11

„ „ above impost 15 2

Height of second stage to impost 21 11

„ „ above impost 16 4

Approximate total height of building, including
foundation 183 7

It is interesting to compare this amphitheatre with some of the best known existing ones in Europe. The table here quoted is given by M. Pelet in his description of the amphitheatre of Nîmes. I assume the accuracy of his dimensions regarding other buildings—those of El-Djem are by no means correct, but that is not wonderful, as accurate information on the subject was not easily obtainable.

+-------------+---------+---------+---------------+---------+-------+
| | Major | Minor | Arena. |Thickness| Area |
|Amphitheatres| axis. | axis. +---------------+ of | of |
| of |Exterior.|Exterior.|Major. Minor. |building.|arena. |
| +---------------------------------------------+-------+
| | Mètres. | Sq. m.|
+-------------+---------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+
|El-Djem | 148·50 | 122· | 64·92 | 52·22 | 41·79 | |
| | | | | | | |
|Pozzuoli | 190·95 | 144·89 |111·93 | 65·85 | 51·01 | 5,788 |
| | | | | | | |
|Rome | 187·77 | 155·76 | 85·75 | 53·62 | 51·01 | 3,611 |
| | | | | | | |
|Capua | 169·89 | 139·60 | 76·12 | 45·85 | 46·88 | 2,74 |
| | | | | | | |
|Verona | 154·18 | 122·89 | 75·68 | 44·39 | 39·25 | 2,638 |
| | | | | | | |
|Pola | 137·80 | 112·60 | 70·00 | 44·80 | 33·90 | 2,463 |
| | | | | | | |
|Arles | 137·47 | 107·29 | 69·50 | 39·35 | 33·97 | 2,147 |
| | | | | | | |
|Pompeii | 135·65 | 104·05 | 66·65 | 35·05 | 34·50 | 1,834 |
| | | | | | | |
|Nîmes | 132·18 | 110·38 | 69·14 | 38·34 | 31·52 | 2,092 |
| | | | | | | |
|Taragon | 148·13 | 118·89 |84·459 |55·223 | 31·85 | 3,664 |
+-------------+---------+---------+-------+-------+---------+-------+

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 128: Ibn Khaldoun, trad. de Slane, i. p. 215.]

[Footnote 129: _De Bello Afr._ c. xxxvi.]

[Footnote 130: Guérin, i. p. 99.]

[Footnote 131: Shaw, p. 206.]

[Footnote 132: El-Bekri, trad. de Slane, p. 77.]

[Footnote 133: This still exists, written in Italian, by Balugani. It is useless, however, without the lettered drawings to which it refers.]

[Footnote 134: This problem has been thoroughly solved since Bruce’s time. In the amphitheatre of Nîmes the method of supporting the masts is perfectly apparent.]

[Footnote 135: El-Bekri, trad. de Slane, p. 76.]

[Footnote 136: ‘Voyage du Sheikh et-Tidjani,’ trad. Rousseau. _Jour. Asiatique, Paris_, 4me série, vol. xx.]

[Footnote 137: Guérin, i. p. 98.]

[Footnote 138: Desfontaines, ap. Dur. de la Malle, ii. p. 119.]