Djemila Gem of Roman Africa

You see the mountains first. Then the gray stones of the ancient city fade into focus, spread over a green slope. This is Jamila, Algeria, ancient Kwikul, one of the most beautiful Roman sites anywhere. It was never an important city. Founded in 96 or 97 A.D. as a colony for veteran soldiers, it flourished in the following century when the wealthiest among its few thousand inhabitants constructed impressive public buildings and monuments. It lived on quietly for half a millennium before fading back into the hills after the end of Roman rule in Africa. Its remains, untouched since antiquity, began to be excavated more than a century ago. We're walking on the Cardo Maximus, Jamila's main street, which runs the length of the slope on which the town stands. This is the part of the city that travelers from the coast would have seen first, and it's appropriately monumental, with colonnades on both sides. Passing through those colonnades, we come to the House of Europa, a magnificent mansion built around the beginning of the fourth century by combining several earlier buildings. We'll enter through the main courtyard, one of several entrances. The main living rooms of the mansion centered on a second courtyard, with its impressive peristyle and a bi-level pool. The house's main public rooms faced this courtyard, including the triclinium, or dining room, with its mosaic of Europa. Next door is the Market of Cosineus, built by two brothers during the reign of Antoninus Pius. It consisted of a courtyard surrounded by a portico, behind which were 18 merchant stalls, each with a stone counter. The counters, as you can see, are elaborately decorated. On one end was the wall against which the official weights of the town were displayed. The table below had hollows for the official measures, to keep merchants honest. Just beyond the Market of Cosineus is Gemilla's original forum. It's similar to that of Timgad and other Roman colonies, a rectangular plaza with a basilica, the Capitolium, and the Kyria in which the town council met. The forum square is still littered with statue bases of emperors and local dignitaries, honored here at the city's heart. A Capitolium was a temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Every Roman colony had one, usually facing the forum, as Gemilla's does. This Capitolium stands on an impressively high podium, with vaulted substructures, which are still well-preserved. The altar in front of the Capitolium is also interesting. The reliefs show the victims and the implements of the sacrifices carried out here. The basilica was a large multipurpose hall with both legal and economic functions. The example at Gemilla has a well-preserved tribunal, a raised dais from which officials or orators could address those assembled within. Note the statue bases for Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus on either side. Gemilla grew rapidly after its foundation, both in population and in wealth. Around the beginning of the 3rd century, both had grown to the point that a new forum was established just outside the original city walls. It was, and is, dominated by the imposing temple of the Gens Septimia, dedicated to the Severan imperial dynasty. The monumental staircase that joins the temple precinct to the forum square is especially impressive. Let's go up. You can still see the tracks of the wheels that supported the temple doors. The interior was plated with marble and contained colossal statues of the Severan emperors. On the other side of the Severan forum is the Arch of Caracalla, set up to mark the beginning of the road leading west to Mauritania. Dedicated to Caracalla, it was originally crowned by statues of Caracalla and his parents, Septimia Severus and Julia Domna. In the early 19th century, the arch narrowly escaped being transported stone by stone to Paris. A short walk downhill from the Severan forum brings us to Gemilla's theater, constructed in the 2nd century. It was relatively small, with only about 3,000 seats, but that was probably enough to hold most of the town's population. The view would have been a bit less spectacular 18 centuries ago, when the stage building, two stories high, blocked part of it. Walking back uphill and across the Severan forum, we come to the Great Baths, built in the late 2nd century. This is one of the apoteteria, changing rooms, that open from the gymnasium. Beyond, two symmetrical series of rooms were arrayed around open pools. The sequence seems to have been apoterium, brigadarium, tepidarium, laconicum, caldarium. The spectacular late antique mansion next to the Great Baths, dating in its current form to the beginning of the 5th century, is known from one of its mosaics as the House of Bacchus. The highlight here is the enormous banqueting hall. Each of the seven apses held a semicircular couch, with room for about 13 people, giving this room a capacity of about 90 diners. Four wash basins were built into the walls for the diners' convenience. We'll end here, in the Basilica of Cresconius. Africa was an early stronghold of Christianity, and most of Jamila's residents appear to have converted by the end of the 4th century. An imposing ecclesiastical complex rose in the hill above the Severan forum, dominated by this church, built by Bishop Cresconius in the early 5th century. It was a typical early Christian basilica, with its main altar in the apse facing the door. A smaller basilica and a baptistry adjoined it on one side, and the bishop's residence was nearby. All of these structures were built largely with stone salvaged from older buildings. A sign that, despite the grandeur of the new Christian structures, Jamila was beginning to fade back into the hills. Thanks for watching!