00

L OF FEET.

little time before, surrounded it with walls in order that, in case of necessity, it might serve as a fortress. Areobindas, governor of Africa, took refuge there, having previously sent his wife and his sister.' The work at Theveste fully bears out this description.

Among other monumental remains of this city the quadrifrontal arch of the time of Caracalla is a conspicuous object, and demands notice on account of the rarity of this form of architectural composition. It will compare favourably with the arch of Janus at Rome, but is in every way inferior to a similar edifice at Tripoli. From inscriptions we learn the complete history of the structure, how the youngest of three brothers, members of a wealthy family at Theveste, bequeathed all his property to his two brothers on condition of their erecting a triumphal arch in his native town, to be surmounted by two tetrastyles' enclosing statues of the two Augusti. This Caius Cornelius Egrilianus, who commanded the 14th legion Gemina, quartered in Pannonia, must have been a man of considerable substance, for in addition to this munificent bequest he enjoined his brothers to place in the forum statues of Juno and Minerva, to appropriate a sum of 250,000 sesterces for the purpose of affording free baths to the inhabitants in the public Therma, and lastly 170 pounds weight of silver and 14 pounds weight of

1 A tetrastyle is a square edifice, adorned with four columns, surmounted by a dome or cupola (tholus). It was sometimes called adicula tetrastyla, and frequently a statue of marble or bronze was placed within it. Here is an inscription found at Constantine relating to the dedication of a tetrastyle with a tholus (Archæolog. Journ. vol. xxix. 1882) :

:

The word tholus is correct Latin, signifying a round roof or a cupola. The word cupola is of Arabic origin. Tholus is applicable to a building of circular form, having the same meaning as 06λos, which was used with reference to the round chamber or rotunda at Athens, in which the Prytanes dined. Cupola, like alcove and the verb 'to cove,' is derived from the Arabic word gobba, which was originally applied to the hump on a camel's back, and afterwards to the cup-shaped tents of nomadic tribes. This word is now pronounced 'koubba,' and is applied generally to native tombs roofed with a cupola. The Italian language retains the word, in its primitive signification, in gobbo, a hunchback.

gold were to be deposited in the Capitol for purposes that this much-worn inscription fails to enlighten us about. The rendering of the inscription, that may still be read on the left side as one passes out of the modern town (Tebessa), has proved an attractive study to many eminent epigraphists, including Renier, Wilmanns, and Mommsen.' According to the last two the wording is as follows:

Ex testamento C. Corneli Egriliani, præfecti legionis XIIII Geminæ : quo testamento ex HS CCL millibus nummum arcum cum statuis Augustorum in tetrastylis duobus cum statuis Junonis et Minervæ, quæ in foro fieri præcepit, præter alia HS CCL millia nummum, quæ rei publicæ ita ut certis diebus gymnasia populo publice in thermis præberentur legavit, datasque ad Kapitolium argenti libras CLXX, id est lances IIII . . . ct auri libras XIIII, id est pihalas (sic) III, scyphos II fieri iussit; quæ omnia diligenter secundum voluntatem eius in contione . . . Corneli Fortunatus et Quintus fratres et heredes consignaverunt et opus perfecerunt.

The reading by Renier varies in a few particulars, the most noteworthy being in the third line, cum statuis divi Severi et Minerva. The substitution of the goddess Juno for the Emperor Septimius Severus is immaterial, though it should be observed that the defaced portion of the stonework at this part of the inscription would admit the insertion of the words divi Severi. This monument is commonly known as the Arch of Caracalla, the two Augusti referred to in the testament being Caracalla and his brother Geta. It appears to have been built just after the murder of Geta by his brother, A.D. 212. The eastern façade has an inscription dedicated to Severus, father of the Augusti, and on the keystone of the arch is the head of an emperor enclosed in a medallion and resting on the head of Medusa.

DIVO PIO· SEVERO · PATRI

IMP CAES· M · AVRELI SEVERI ANTONINI
AVG · ARAB· ADIAB PARTH

PII FELICIS

MAX BRIT MAX GERM・ MAX PONT MAX TRIB POT XVII. IMP II COS IIII PROCOS PP.

.

On the frieze of the west façade is a dedication in honour of Julia Domna, wife of Severus and mother of the Augusti.3 The bust sculptured on the keystone, representing a young

C. I. L. No. 1858; I. R. A. No. 3085. 2 I. R. A. No. 3087.

3 I. R. A. No. 3088.

female surmounting an eagle on a thunderbolt, cannot be intended for the Empress, who at the date of the erection of this monument had already passed middle age. It was probably a symbol of Theveste as a young and rising city.

The inscription on the south façade is illegible, and on the northern side no longer exists, this part of the edifice having been restored in recent times. Both these inscriptions were probably in honour of Caracalla and Geta. The peculiarities of this architectural composition are the exceptional width of the frieze, and the absence of an attic-a marked feature in triumphal arches. For the latter, two tetrastyles, as a crowning feature of the edifice, are substituted. It has been suggested that there were similar tetrastyles on each of the four façades, but there is no mention of that number on any inscription or document, nor is there any indication on the monument itself of there having been more than the two mentioned in the testament of Caius Cornelius Egrilianus.

Triumphal arches form a class of monuments that is exclusively Roman. The Greeks raised columns in honour of men distinguished in war and intellectual attainments, bearing out a statement by Pliny the Elder, Columnarum ratio erat attolli supra ceteros mortales, quod et arcus significant novitio invento. Arches came in with the Empire as permanent structures. In the days of the Republic they were made of wood, after the manner of the Etruscans, and, like similar erections of our own time, were taken down on completion of a public ceremony.' These monumental gateways, which generally served as ap

1 It may be as well to quote the opinion expressed by Gibbon on Roman triumphs, which is generally accepted: A Roman triumph could only be obtained by the conquerors of nations who had never previously acknowledged the authority of the Romans; the reduction of a revolted province did not suffice; the Senate took no account of victories which did not extend the frontiers of the Empire. This seems to have been the rule; but when Titus and his father triumphed over the Jews, and when the Senate commemorated their victories by medals and that triumphal arch which has subsisted to the present day, they did nothing more than triumph over a revolted province, which had been subdued by the arms of Pompey, and governed by Roman magistrates for the space of fifty years.' (Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works, Classical, vol. iv. p. 369.)

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