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El-Bekri, 'on ranges of arches placed one above the other, reaching even to the clouds.' This stupendous work was conceived by Hadrian, and commenced, it is said, after his second visit to Africa. There is reason to believe that it was completed as far as Zaghouan during his reign, a length of about thirty-five miles, but the extension to Mount Djougar was not finished till the reign of Septimius Severus. A coin bearing his effigy was struck in the mint at Carthage, having on the reverse a figure of Astarte, as the tutelary genius of that city, seated on a lion in front of a spring of water issuing from a rock. The most gigantic portion of the aqueduct was that across the Oued Melian, mentioned by El-Bekri. It was in fair preservation some sixty years ago, but, a new bridge over the river being necessary in consequence of increasing traffic between Tunis and Zaghouan, the piers and superstructure were wantonly overthrown to provide materials for its foundation. The bridge might have been constructed a few hundred yards higher up, and this noble monument left intact. It need scarcely be stated that the modern bridge exhibits the usual combination of iron and stone, and has nothing in extenuation to recommend it.

The great aqueduct, we are told, was a work of necessity. A cry of distress from Carthage had reached Rome. For five consecutive years no rain had fallen in that part of Africa. The cisterns were empty, the land was parched, the harvest was failing, and the grainships for Rome were lying idle in the harbours. There was an abundance of corn in African granaries to meet the immediate demands of Roman colonists and the native population; but for years past Rome, as well as the chief towns in Italy, had looked to the other side of the Mediterranean for their principal supply, and, as the long wars under Trajan had withdrawn a large able-bodied population from agricultural pursuits, the failure of the crops became a matter of grave consideration by the Senate at Rome. There is no need, therefore, to be surprised at Hadrian's desire for a continuance of good harvests in the African provinces. The gods favoured him, for we are told by Spartian that on the day when the Emperor set foot in the country the clouds gathered, the rain fell in abundance, and men's hearts rejoiced.' Little wonder

1 Quando in Africam venit, ad adventum ejus, post quinquennium pluit, atque ideo ab Africanis dilectus est. (Spart. Had. xxii.)

then that the peasantry regarded Hadrian as a deity, and that his sojourn in the land was marked by unusual gladness!

The system of rain-water storage, which the Carthaginians had inherited from the Phoenicians, and had brought to perfection, was continued by the Romans in rebuilding Carthage. The great reservoirs which El-Bekri calls 'the cisterns of the demons' were restored for the service of the great aqueduct ; and another range of cisterns, called the smaller cisterns, of which there were eighteen, each measuring 93 feet by 19 feet 8 inches and 27 feet 6 inches to the crown of the vault, capable of holding upwards of four million gallons, were built for the storage of rain-water. These cisterns are built with rubble stone and remarkably hard mortar, and are coated internally with thin cement, apparently made with marble dust. Some of these cisterns are still in fair preservation and are used by the peasantry. The larger cisterns of the Carthaginians are in ruins. Shaw says 'there were twenty in his time, the dimensions being 350 feet by 25 feet. They were supplied by an aqueduct from Zaghouan, and the channel or duct was 3 feet wide.' At the angles, as well as in the centre of their length, there were circular filters domed over. Even in their present ruined condition the forms of these gigantic reservoirs are easily traced. For a long period the Romans adopted the methods of their predecessors, constructing their cisterns in long parallel basins with very thick rubble walls and rubble vaulting. According to M. Daux and other investigators, there were covered galleries more than six feet wide on each side for the purpose of protecting from the sun the inhabitants who came to draw water. In the plains the cisterns were frequently of polygonal form, built with rubble and strengthened by counterforts within and without. Those of a large size were not covered. In some cases a second basin of rectangular shape was added, vaulted over, but with a flat roof externally, and with openings at intervals to facilitate the lowering of pitchers into the water. A range of cisterns of this form may still be seen on the road between Susa and Kairouan. There is another, mentioned and illustrated by Daux, on the road to Aquæ Regiæ, the celebrated warm baths frequented by the kings of Numidia, at the junction of the road leading by Avidus and Sarsura to Thysdrus. A reproduction of the drawing will be found in MM. Perrot and

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