Transcript
PHIL PERKINS:
This collection of votive stones from near Thugga, provide further evidence of this process. At the top of this stone is the figure of Baal, the punic god of the sun, surrounded by sun, moon and stars. But he’s also holding a thunder bolt - the symbol of Jupiter, the Roman god of the heavens. Below him is African Tanit.
Below her are Dionysus and Venus. So overall we have a thorough mixing of Roman and African motifs. In the centre is a representation of a temple with the dedicant - who’s named in the inscription below as Bellicus son of Maximus.
So far we’ve seen mainly religious and civic buildings but there were also other public buildings. Outside the city walls on this plateau, was Thugga’s circus. Little remains now but the building type is well known from other cities and / mosaic representations.
/ From Thugga itself we have this mosaic of the victorious charioteer Eros, who has just left the starting gate. The writing says he’ll do his best for you along with his horses ‘Amiable’ and ‘Jovial’.
/ The chariot races in the circus were particularly popular in North African cities and were a focus of spectacle, gambling and rivalry. Prizes were awarded in a bronze trophy.
/ An amphitheatre has not yet been located in Thugga, and so the Circus remains the only public building for entertainment apart from the Theatre.
Thugga appears to have had at least three public bath buildings.
A small suite of baths in the lower part of the city include a typical small latrine.
Although small, the baths were highly decorated - / including this mosaic of three cyclopes making the thunderbolts of Jupiter in the cave of Vulcan - as described by Virgil in The Aeniad - when the shield of Aeneas is being made.
The baths needed a constant water supply, brought to the city via aqueducts and stored in cisterns. These cisterns also served this bath complex, built in the AD 260s.
This large complex is a symmetrical building with two matching sets of bath rooms arranged around a large cold bath room. This form of bath building allows two separate, but simultaneous routes through the bathing process, one for men and another for women. The plan was modelled on earlier buildings in the city of Rome, such as the baths of Trajan, near the Colosseum.
The complex at Thugga was built by the Licinii family. Tucked down the side of the Punic mausoleum is a tombstone of this once great family of Thugga.
Such families would have lived in houses like this one - the House of the Trifolium.
Many houses were decorated with mosaics, / showing hospitality scenes. / /
This was a means of creating an / image of status and prestige. / So guests would be surrounded by abundance / and luxury. /
/ Here servants pour wine from two amphorae - labelled in Greek PIE - drink! And ZHCHC – good health!
/ In this mosaic Dionysus, the god of wine and fruitfulness - is surrounded by the four seasons - representing the creative energy of nature and its cyclical renewal throughout the year.
/ Here the young Dionysus rides a tiger surrounded by his satyrs and baccantes in a circular procession. Around these is a border composed of scallop shells, tridents and dolphins.
/ Sea motifs are also abundant in this series of mosaics - showing scenes from Homer. For example the legend of Ulysses and the Sirens. From the same floor, another panel shows a scene from the seventh Homeric Hymn, where the young Dionysus drives away Tyrhennian pirates, turned into dolphins as they were cast into the sea. These mosaics come from the centre of the peristyle of a house in Thugga - the House of Ulysses, and illustrate the fusion of cultural elements, which we’ve seen in the development of the city as a whole.
Although some buildings remained distinctly African, while others developed as typically Roman, and some aspects of city life remained separate, such as administration, the overall picture is a rich combination of both African and Roman.