Thamugadi
Thamugadi, also known as Timgad, is an ancient city located in Algeria, originally founded as a Roman colony by Emperor Trajan around AD 100. Established primarily for ex-soldiers, it was strategically positioned at a crossroads of key trade routes, facilitating agricultural development in the surrounding fertile areas. The city's prosperity peaked during the reign of the North African emperor Septimius Severus in the early third century, leading to significant expansion and architectural advancements.
Thamugadi is notable for its well-preserved Roman ruins, which exhibit a grid-like layout characteristic of military camps, featuring a forum, basilica, library, and various temples. The site also includes a theater and extensive bathing facilities, reflecting the lifestyle and culture of its inhabitants. In the fourth century, Thamugadi became a center for the Donatist schism, showcasing the religious diversity of the period. However, it faced challenges such as raids and plundering in the late fifth century. Today, Thamugadi stands out for its archaeological significance, being one of the most complete Roman sites in Africa and offering insights into the complexities of ancient urban life and religious practices.
Subject Terms
Thamugadi
(Timgad)
A city of Numidia in the Roman province of Africa (Algeria), founded as a colony of ex-soldiers by Trajan, under the name of Colonia Marciana Trajana (AD 100). Situated in a fertile countryside where the east-west road from Theveste (Tebessa) to the garrison town of Lambaesis (Tazzoult, Lambèse) crossed a route leading northward to Rusicade (Skikda) on the coast, Thamugadi was one of a series of centers strategically located just north of the Aurès mountain range, in order to block the passes. Irrigation made agriculture possible in the neighborhood, and the town served as a market for a large district.
It attained great prosperity under the dynasty of the north African Septimius Severus (193–211). In the fourth century it was the center of the puritanical Donatist schism, which—aided by bands of militant itinerant harvesters (Circumcelliones)—became the majority church of Africa until c 400, when a series of imperial rescripts (culminating in the decisions of the Council of Carthage, 411) imposed sanctions and persecutions. These lasted until occupation by the Vandals (see Numidia), under whom Thamugadi underwent plundering by raiders from the Aurès mountains at the end of the fifth century.
With the single exception of Lepcis Magna, Thamugadi displays the most complete Roman remains in Africa, and they have been thoroughly excavated. The original town was designed according to a regular camp-like grid plan, with one hundred and eleven more or less equal blocks; its main streets met at an intersection where the colonnaded forum, an apsed basilica, a fine library, the local senate-house (curia), and a row of shops were all situated. Behind the forum a street climbs to the theater, of which the construction was begun c 160. A Roman house (known as the Maison des Jardinières) has been plausibly identified with the residence occupied by the legionary commander and governor of Numidia on the occasion of his visits to Thamugadi. More than a dozen bathing establishments have also been located, and numerous temples.
But as the habitation area began to outgrow its original rectangle—shortly after the mid-second century—an imposing new Capitoline temple was built outside the walls. Under Septimius Severus, when the size of the city had been magnified fourfold, parts of these defences and their gates were pulled down, to make room for houses and for a finely decorated three-bayed triumphal arch, now restored. Beside the arch a local citizen, Marcus Plotius Faustus Sertius, constructed a new marketplace at his own expense; his enormous house, too, has come to light, in addition to the `House of the Hermaphrodite,’ one of a number of residences possessing pavements which display the original, talented, varied and intricate work of a local school of mosaicists. A medicinal spring, the Aqua Septimia Felix, was associated with a temple of water divinities, which contained three shrines filled with statues and interlinked by terraces and stairs, and was further adorned with colonnaded gardens and other enrichments in the time of Severus' son Caracalla (211–17). Another sanctuary was dedicated to Saturn, identified with a local deity.
At the beginning of the fourth century new buildings were added, including two additional, palatial sets of Baths. Two Christian basilicas seem to have been the Catholic and Donatist cathedrals (see above), the latter forming part of an elaborate precinct; a house was found to contain an inscription bearing the name of Optatus, the Donatist leader from 388 to 398.