It will be observed that the sixth legion Ferrata referred to was employed in opening up communication across the Aurès by means of a military road. This legion formed no part of the army of Africa, but was probably sent thither by the Emperor at a time when the third legion Augusta was engaged in defending the western frontiers against irruptions by the Moors. Some fifty years ago the late General St. Arnaud was conducting a column through this identical pass, and when he had reached the summit and looked down on the Great Desert stretched at his feet, he remarked in the enthusiasm of the moment, 'We may flatter ourselves we are the first soldiers to pass through this region.' Strange error! There by the mountain track, on the face of the imperishable rock, was the record of a nation long since passed away-a memorial of a Roman legion who had bivouacked on that very spot more than seventeen centuries ago.

Among other dedications to Antonine mention should be made of an inscription on the great gateway forming the approach to the principal temples at Sufetula in the far south, now known as Sbeitla. This remote town has played an important part in the making of Roman Africa, and was the scene of the great heroic struggle at a later date between Christian and Moslem for supremacy in that country. Its early history is veiled in obscurity, and its name is supposed by Bruce and other travellers to have been derived from the Sufetes, the title held by all magistrates in towns dependent upon Carthage. The modern

' I.R.A. No. 4360. Henzen, Orelliana Collect. vol. iii. No. 6621.

The Roman duumvirs called themselves sufetes in Punic towns, the word appearing on several inscriptions. Vide Guérin, vol. i. p. 429; also C.I.L. No. 797.

name of the place, Sbeitla, is an Arab corruption. We learn from the Itinerary of Antonine that it is twenty-five miles from Sufes, changed by the Arabs into Sbiba-a city of renown in pre-Roman times. 'We arrived at Sbiba,' says El-Bekri in the eleventh century, 'a town of great antiquity, built of stone, and containing a college and several baths. The whole country around is covered with gardens, and produces a saffron of the greatest excellence.' Sbiba is now a wilderness. The soil is covered with rough herbage, the once flourishing city is now the home of the jackal, and human habitations are not to be found within a radius of twenty miles. What a change from the lordly days when Sufes took high rank among the earlier Roman settlements, placed under the protection of Hercules, and described as splendidissimus et felicissimus ordo Colonia Sufetana! In the Epistles of St. Augustine we learn something of its later career, when Paganism and Christianity were striving for the mastery, and there is a record of sixty inhabitants of the town suffering martyrdom for having overthrown a statue of its protecting deity. But Sufes has long since passed away, and the few travellers who explore this trackless region must build up from their imagination the stonebuilt city with its pleasant gardens, and the hillsides clothed with timber and perennial verdure. Sufetula, on the contrary, still exists as one of the most interesting places in old Byzacene -a city of ruins in a beautiful country, once remarkable for its abundant supply of water, the sweetness of its climate, and the wealth of its inhabitants. It was entirely surrounded by gardens and orchards, and the productiveness of the soil is apparent in the present day. Sufetula appears to have been in a flourishing condition during the reigns of Antonine and Marcus Aurelius, and, judging by inscriptions of a later date that are still legible, it must have enjoyed great prosperity long after the fall of the Roman Empire. Of its earlier career we have no record, but its last days, tinged with the romance so dear to Arab writers, have furnished abundant material for the exercise of the imagination. From Ibn Khaldoun we learn that in the year A.D. 647 the Khalif Othman determined to effect the conquest of Africa, and that, having raised a large army in Egypt, he despatched it to Tripoli under the command of his brother,

This event is still recorded in the Romish calendar for the month of August.

Abdulla Ibn Saad. At that time Gregorius was governor of Africa, under the nominal suzerainty of the Emperor of the East; but, finding his popularity increasing among the native races, he threw off the Byzantine yoke and proclaimed himself an independent sovereign. His dominions, according to the same authority, extended from Tripoli to Tangier; and Sufetula, his capital, acquired increased renown from the presence of so powerful a ruler. It was not long before the Mohammedan general, with his well-trained army of some 40,000 men, roused to enthusiasm by victory after victory in their onward march from Cyrene and Tripoli, encamped in the near neighbourhood of Sufetula. The two armies met, and for two days were engaged in mortal combat. Such was the excitement in the Byzantine camp that the daughter of Gregorius, a maiden of rare beauty, did not hesitate to fight at her father's side, and to promise her hand and the sum of 100,000 dinars to any one who would slay Abdulla Ibn Saad. The challenge was taken up by the Arab leader, who offered the same money prize to any one who would slay the renowned Gregorius. We are told that the Byzantines were utterly defeated, that Gregorius was killed, and that the beautiful maid was handed over to Ibn ezZobeid, who had slain her father. Sufetula was then besieged, taken, and destroyed. The city was pillaged and the booty divided. So great, indeed, was the plunder, we are told, that every horseman of Othman's army received 3,000 dinars, and every foot soldier 1000! The records of Sufetula cease with this calamity, when one of the chief strongholds of the Christian creed was destroyed, and when Christianity in Africa may be said to have received its final blow. The factious spirit of many of the African bishops, their numerous heresies, and their sufferings at the time of the Vandal invasion and for a century afterwards, paved the way for the final overthrow of the Christian Church by the Arabs. And it was aptly remarked by Gibbon in the last century that 'the northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the light of the Gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totally extinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage and Rome, were involved in the cloud of ignorance, and the doctrines of Cyprian and St. Augustine ceased to be studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of Donatists, Van