Chapter II: Julia Cæsarea

There is no written account remaining of Bruce’s explorations to the west of Algiers, and the only allusion to them is the fact that he first used his camera obscura in delineating the _Kubr-er-Rumiah_, or Tombeau de la Chrétienne, as it is now called.

The illustrations he has left of Julia Cæsarea, which, doubtless, he visited while still Consul-General at Algiers, are as follows:

1. A perspective view in water-colours and distemper of the Kubr-er-Rumiah, or Tomb of Juba II. No architectural details are shown, as the _débris_ around the base had not then been cleared away.

2. Finished drawing to scale, in Indian ink, of restored plan, and elevation of Tomb.

3. Perspective view in water-colours of the same building, taken from the S.E. In the foreground are architectural fragments, including Ionic capitals, frusta of columns, and portion of entablature. [Plate I.]

4. Finished drawing to scale, in Indian ink, of front and side elevation of capitals of Ionic order; plan of columns. Elevation and section of architrave. [Plate II.]

5. Duplicate of 2; dimensions not figured.

6. Duplicate of 4.

7. Pencil drawings of coins: six coins of Ptolemy, one of Juba II.

8. Pencil drawings of coins: eight coins of Juba, four of Juba and Cleopatra Selene, one of Cleopatra Selene.

9. Pencil sketch of Tomb, very similar to 3.

10. Perspective view of Aqueduct of Cherchel. [Plate III.]

11. A view of the same, in distemper.

12. Elevation and section of the same to scale.

13 to 15. Three ornamental titles of proposed work.

The site of the ancient city of Jol, subsequently Julia Cæsarea, is marked by the modern town of Cherchel, about 72 miles west of Algiers.

After the surrender of Jugurtha to Marius by his son-in-law and ally, Bocchus King of Numidia, the latter reunited to his own kingdom the provinces, which extended from Saldae, the modern Bougie, to Molocath, the modern river Molouia, on the confines of Morocco. At his death, about 91 B.C., he left the western portion of his dominions to Bogud, and the newly annexed portions to his second son Bocchus.

Fifty years later we find these two divisions of Mauritania still existing, and governed by kings bearing the same names as before, but with this difference, that it was Bogud who was King of Eastern Mauritania, and Bocchus who governed the western portion or Tingitana.[13]

The former of these took part with Cæsar in the war, which terminated in the defeat of the Pompeian army at Thapsus, and the suicide of Juba I. King of Numidia. The infant son of that monarch was taken to Rome, where he graced the triumph of the great dictator; a part of the forfeited kingdom was given to Bogud, and subsequently the western province was added by Augustus, during the reign of his son Bocchus III. That prince reigned five years over the two Mauritanias, his capital being Jol, and died B.C. 33.

In the meantime the young Juba had been carefully educated at Rome, where he attained a high literary reputation, being frequently cited by Pliny, who describes him as more memorable for his erudition than for the crown he wore, glorious as it was. Plutarch also calls him the greatest historian amongst kings.

All his works have disappeared, though a long list of them has survived; they treated of a great diversity of subjects, including history, antiquities, arts, science, grammar and geography.

In the year 26 B.C. Augustus, desiring to give to the people of the late monarch a sovereign of their own race, fixed upon this son of Juba, and restored to him the western portion of his father’s dominions, trusting to his thorough Roman education to secure his submission, and on the prestige of his race and name to win the affections of the Numidian races, and to hasten their fusion with the conquering nation.

He removed his capital to the ancient Phœnician city of Jol, to which he gave the name of Julia Cæsarea.

He died in A.D. 19, leaving a son, Ptolemy, the last independent prince of Mauritania, who was far from sharing the high qualities of his father.

J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.

TOMBEAU DE LA CHRÉTIENNE OR TOMB OF JUBA II.

FAC SIMILE OF PLATE OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS

EXECUTED BY BRUCE AFTER HIS RETURN TO SCOTLAND.

HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]

His reign was characterised by debauchery and misgovernment, and the Mauritanians were not slow to rise in revolt, under the leadership of Tacfarinas. This war lasted for seven years, shortly after which Tiberius died, and was succeeded by Caligula, who summoned Ptolemy to Rome, and, after having received him with great honour, caused him to be killed, as he thought that the splendour of his attire excited unduly the attention of the spectators. It is more likely that he desired to appropriate the wealth that Ptolemy was known to have accumulated. This murder was followed by a serious revolution in Mauritania, which lasted several years.

The Tombeau de la Chrétienne figured by Bruce is well known to all visitors to Algiers. It is one of three somewhat similar edifices, one of which is found in each province of Algeria, the other two being the Medrassen, or Tomb of the Numidian Kings in Constantine, and El-Djedar in Oran.

This, however, is the only one mentioned by any ancient author. Pomponius Mela, in his work ‘De Situ Orbis,’ written about the middle of the first century, after the death of Juba II., but before the murder of his son Ptolemy, mentions both Cæsarea (Cherchel) and Icosium (Algiers), and states that beyond the former is the _monumentum commune regiæ gentis_.

This at once decides the nature of the building, which, though intended to be seen far and near, is yet entirely concealed from view at Cherchel by the mountain of Chennoua, the presumption being that the king would not care to have constantly within sight of his royal residence, the tomb which he had caused to be constructed for himself.

The resemblance to the Medrassen, or Tomb of the Numidian Kings, from whom Juba was descended, is another presumption that it was erected by him in imitation of his ancestral mausoleum.

Bruce’s illustration (Plate I.) of this monument is the only inaccurate one in the whole series. Until long after his time the podium was so encumbered with _débris_ that it was impossible to make out the architectural details, and he has represented this portion of the edifice rather as what he imagined it to be than as it actually existed.

Juba II. married Cleopatra Selene, daughter of the celebrated Egyptian queen by Marc Antony, and there is every probability that this monument served only as his tomb, and that of his wife, who died before him. It is hardly likely that the remains of his son Ptolemy, the last of his race, could have been transferred from Rome to Africa.

The tomb must have been violated at a very early period in the search for hidden treasure. A careful examination of the accumulated earth and dust within revealed traces of successive races, who had visited the place, some of whom had even made it a place of residence, but none whatever of the bodies for whose reception it had been erected.

It is called by the Arabs _Kubr er-Roumiah_, tomb of the Roman, or rather Christian woman, the word _Roumi_ (fem. _Roumiah_) being used commonly by Arabs all over the East to designate strangers of Christian origin.

Various explanations are given of this name. Marmol mentions a tradition, that under it were interred the mortal remains of the beautiful daughter of Count Julian, over the story of whose misfortunes the muse of Southey has shed so strong an interest.

Shaw[14] states that amongst the Turks it was known by the name Maltapasy, or Treasure of the Sugar Loaf; and the belief, that it covered some great accumulation of riches, has exposed it to attacks, by which it has been much ruined, and before which a less solid structure would have altogether disappeared. Marmol adds:

‘In the year 1555 Solharraes[15] attempted to pull it down, hoping to find some treasure in it; but when they lifted up the stones there came a sort of black poisonous wasps from under them, which caused immediate death wherever they stinged, and upon that Barbarossa dropped his design.’

Many other legends and traditions are connected with it, which it would be out of place here to reproduce.

The Tombeau de la Chrétienne is built on a hill forming part of the Sahel range, 756 feet above the level of the sea, covered with a brushwood of lentisk and tree heath, situated nearly midway between Tipasa and Koleah, and to the west of Algiers.

It is a circular, or rather polygonal, building, originally about 131 feet in height; the actual height at present is 100 ft. 8 in., of which the cylindrical portion is 36 ft. 6 in., and the pyramid 64 ft. 2 in. The base is 198 feet in diameter, and forms an encircling podium, or zone, of a decorative character, presenting a vertical wall, ornamented with sixty engaged Ionic columns, 2 ft. 5 in. in diameter, surmounted by a frieze or cornice of simple form. The capitals of the columns have entirely disappeared, but they are represented in Bruce’s drawings as having very small volutes, most of the space between which is occupied by a honeysuckle flower. There are two tendrils, one on each side of the flower, but growing out of the surface of the capital, and not continuous with the flower. The necking between the capital and the shaft is composed of a succession of four small petalled flowers, flatly applied, contained between an upper and a lower fillet.

The series of the colonnade has at the cardinal points four false doors, the four panels of which, producing what may have been taken to represent a cross, probably contributed to fix the appellation of Christian to it.

Above the cornice rise a series of thirty-three steps, which gradually decrease in circular area, giving the building the appearance of a truncated cone.

The whole monument is placed on a low platform 210 feet square, the sides of which are tangents to the circular base.

During the Emperor Napoleon’s last visit to Africa he charged the well-known Algerian scholar, M. Berbrugger, and M. MacCarthy, the late and present directors of the library and museum, to explore this tomb, which had never been penetrated in modern times, spite of the attempt of Salah Rais, in 1555, and the efforts of Baba Mohammed in the end of the eighteenth century, to batter it down by means of artillery.

In May, 1866, a hole was drilled by an Artesian sound, which gave indications of an interior cavity, and shortly afterwards an opening was made from the exterior to the interior passage. Entering by this, both the central chamber and the regular door were easily found.

Below the false door, to the E., is a smaller one, giving access to a vaulted chamber, to the right of which was the door of the principal gallery. Above this are rudely sculptured the figures of a lion and a lioness.

From this passage a large gallery, about 6 ft. 7 in. in breadth, by 7 ft. 5 in. in height, is entered by a flight of steps. Along it are niches in the wall, intended to hold lamps. Its total length is 483 feet. This winds round in a spiral direction, gradually approaching the centre, where are two sepulchral vaulted chambers, one 12 ft. 4 in. by 9 ft. 3 in., and the other 12 ft. 4 in. by 9 ft. 7 in., separated from each other by a short passage, and shut off from the winding passage by stone doors, consisting of a single slab capable of being moved up and down by levers like a portcullis.

Julia Cæsarea itself, corresponding to the charming little French town of Cherchel, is situated further on, at a distance of 71 miles from Algiers, and twenty from the nearest station, El-Afroun.

Close to the twenty-second kilometric stone, counting from where the Cherchel road branches off from the main one to Miliana at Bou-Rekika, and at a distance of between six and seven miles from Cherchel, is the subject of Bruce’s second illustration (Plate III.), part of the aqueduct which led the waters of the Oued el-Hachem, and the copious springs of Djebel Chennoua into Julia Cæsarea. This consisted of two converging branches, following the contour of the hills as open channels or traversing projecting spurs by means of galleries. In only two places was it necessary to carry the water over valleys on arches; the first was at the place here illustrated, and the second about three miles further on, at the junction of the two branches, where the united waters were carried over the valley of the Oued Billah on a single series of arches, of which five are still entire.

Many piers of the others remain, and the high road now passes between two of them.

Bruce has, as usual, left no names or indication of locality on his drawings of this structure, but its condition at the present day is hardly different from what it was a century ago. And amongst his MSS. I discovered a small scrap of paper containing a memorandum in pencil, which would have removed all doubts on the subject, had any existed.

‘_Shershell arches. View is that of the east side. River Hashem. Shenoa on the east. The mountain of Beni Habeeb that seen through the broken arch_.’

At this spot a small stream winds through a deep and narrow valley. The aqueduct is carried over this on a triple series of arches, nearly all of which are still entire, with the exception of the gap exhibited in the illustration.

The lower and middle series consisted each of seven arches, of which five are complete, and the upper one had sixteen, of which thirteen remain.

The construction of the building cannot compare with that of the great aqueduct of Carthage; the arches are irregular in form, where irregularity does not appear to have been necessary. The masonry is of cut stone only as far as the spring of the middle arches, above which it is of rubble; all the superstructure above the bottom of the specus has disappeared, but at the south end there still remains a circular basin, intended, no doubt, to break the fall of the water, which descended at a steep incline, and to collect the stones and other substances which might be washed down by it, and thus allow only a stream of clear water to flow over into the duct beyond.

J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.

AQUEDUCT OF JULIA CAESARIA (CHERCHEL)

FAC-SIMILE OF FINISHED INDIAN INK DRAWING BY BRUCE (AND BALUGANI?)

HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]

The dimensions given by Bruce of this aqueduct are as follows:—

Ft. in. lines.

Height to keystone of lower arch 39 9 0

Thickness of keystone 2 6 0

Height to keystone of middle arch 34 0 0

Thickness of keystone 1 9 0

Thence to keystone of upper arch 38 9 0

Above intrados of upper arch 5 9 0

Total height 116 6 4

Breadth of first pier 11 7 2

Breadth of first arch 11 5 0

Breadth of second and third piers 14 8 0

Interval between them 19 6 4

Thickness of pier of first series 14 7 3

Cherchel is easily reached in one day from Algiers by railway and omnibus, and is well worthy of a visit. It is pleasantly situated on the sea coast in a very picturesque plateau west of the Oued Billah, and between the mountains of the Beni Manasser and the sea. Ruins of former magnificence exist in every direction, and wherever excavations are made, columns and fragments of architectural details are found in abundance; unfortunately, little or no regard has been paid to the preservation of the numerous remains which existed even as late as the French conquest. Most of the portable objects of interest have been removed to museums elsewhere, and nearly all the monuments have been destroyed for the sake of their stones. The large amphitheatre outside the gate to the east still retains its outline, but the bottom is encumbered with twelve or fifteen feet of _débris_, and is at present a ploughed field; the steps, excepting in one small corner, have disappeared, and every block of cut stone has been removed. The theatre or hippodrome near the barracks is now a mere depression in the ground, though in 1840 it was in a nearly perfect state of preservation, and was surrounded by a portico supported by columns of granite and marble, to which access was obtained by a magnificent flight of steps. Here it is said that St. Arcadius suffered martyrdom by being cut in pieces. Magnificent baths existed both in the vicinity of the amphitheatre, where is now the _Champs de Mars_, and on the opposite side of the town overlooking the port. Even as late as my first visit to Cherchel a curious old fort existed on the public place, built, as an inscription in the museum testifies, by the Caïd Mahmoud bin Fares Ez-zaki, under the government and by order of _The Emir who executes the orders of God, who fights in the ways of God, Aroudj, the son of Yakoob, in the year of the Hejira_ 924. This was built out of older Roman materials found on the spot by the celebrated corsair Baba Aroudj, surnamed by Europeans Barbarossa.

Numerous columns of black diorite and the _brèche_ of Djebel Chennoua lie scattered about the place, as well as magnificent fragments of what must once have been a white marble temple of singular beauty. In the museum a great variety of fragments are collected, many of which probably belonged to the same building, together with broken statues, tumulary and other inscriptions, capitals and bases of columns, amphoræ, etc., and in one corner, amongst a heap of rubbish, are some precious specimens illustrating curious facts connected with the state of industrial arts during the time of the Romans. For instance, a small section of a leaden pipe shows us that such implements were then made by rolling up a sheet of the metal, folding over the edges, and running molten lead along the joint. An ingot of the same metal exists, as perfect as when it left the foundry, with the maker’s name in _basso relievo_. There is a boat’s anchor much corroded, but still perfect in shape, a sundial of curious design, and, most interesting of all, the lower half of a seated Egyptian divinity, in black basalt, with a hieroglyphic inscription. This was found in the bed of the harbour, and may have been sent as a present to the fair Cleopatra, from her native land.

One of the most interesting buildings in the town is the Military Hospital, once a Mohammedan mosque, supported on 89 columns of diorite, surmounted by capitals brought from other buildings, without regard to size or style. The bases are embedded in the ground, it having been found necessary to raise the floor, in order to protect the building from damp. The mosque, which was of immense size, has been divided by partition walls to make four separate wards.

From an antiquarian point of view, there is no place in the province of Algiers so interesting as Cherchel and its neighbourhood, and however reckless has been the destruction of the precious architectural treasures which it contained, abundance still remains to testify to the splendour of the capital of Mauritania Cæsariensis.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: De Vermeuil et Bugnot, _Rev. Afr._ xiv. p. 45.]

[Footnote 14: Shaw, p. 45.]

[Footnote 15: Salah Rais.]