AGGAR
(Henchir Sidi Amara) Tunisia.
Until
the Dorsale could be crossed by road between Mactar
and Kairouan, the way between the N regions of Siliana,
Sers, and Le Kef, and the basins of El Ala, Ousseltia,
and Kairouan to the S lay over one of the very few
passes in the continuous chain formed by the Jebels Barbrou, Kesra, Bellota, and Serj. At this pass—Foum el
Afrit—several roads converged before crossing the Dorsale; the pass was used continually in every period and,
up to recent times, by nomads moving their flocks. In
antiquity it was dominated by an important city, Aggar;
today all that is left of it is ruins, with the Sidi Amara
marabout overlooking them. Aggar appears in the
Peutinger Table between Althiburos and Thysdrus, halfway
between Uzappa and Aqua Regia; it is also mentioned by
Arab writers who refer to it as a station on the road
from Jelloula to Lorbeus. Proof of the importance of this
highway is the fine bridge on the wadi Jilf, on the other
side of the pass. The city's identification is confirmed by
certain inscriptions.
At the beginning of the 3d c., Aggar was still a municipium (
CIL VIII, 14), to become a colonia later. Situated at the outlet of the rocky pass and backed against the S flank of the mountain, it enjoys a favorable position from which it overlooks the immense basin of the
wadi Marouf and Bahir ech Chiha (formerly Behir Aggar), which is bounded to the SE by the Ousselet and to
the S by the Trozza.
The ruins are fairly extensive and have not been excavated. A Byzantine citadel can be made out; it is 30 m
square with square, slightly projecting towers at the corners. This fortress was put up on the site of a large monument that has been identified as a Temple of Juno; a
great arcade is still standing. To the right is a triumphal
gate, only the piers of which remain. It led to a large
porticoed square (whose fallen columns are still lodged in
the ground) with a temple behind it. These are, presumably, the capitol and forum. Adjoining the citadel is a
temple (undetermined) that stands SE of the city. On its
SE facade the monumental gate gives onto a courtyard
surrounded by a portico. In the plain at the foot of the
mountain stands the two-tiered mausoleum of C. Marius
Romanius (Ksar Khima); the roofing is almost intact.
Some 1500 m farther W, on the other side of the pass,
is the aforementioned bridge over the wadi Jilf, six of
whose ten original arches are still preserved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nouv Arch 4 (1893) 387-89
I.
A. ENNABLI
