CIRTA
(Constantine) Algeria.
The name
appears in texts from the 3d c. B.C. when the town
was a capital of King Syphax. Later it became Massinissa's capital and the center of the kingdom which he
organized in the E part of modern Algeria and W Tunisia. The town is cited by ancient authors several times,
in particular in connection with the war which Jugurtha
conducted against the Roman people. After Caesar's
victory at Thapsus in 46 B.C., the town and the territory
around it were given to an adventurer, P. Sittius, a companion of Caesar and a native of Nocera in Campania.
His hold upon this prize, which extended between Africa
Nova and the territory of Bocchus, was undoubtedly
brief. Later attached to the province of Africa, to
which it belonged until the reign of Hadrian, the town
and its environs then came under the control of the
legate of the Third Augustan Legion, which was in garnison at Lambaesis.
The town of Cirta had become a Roman colony,
probably as early as the time of Sittius. At the beginning
of the 2d c. it was the capital of a curious administrative district, one of those anomalies common to the administrative history of Africa. It was the capital of the confederation of the IV colonies, the three others being
Rusicade, Chullu, and Milev. Its magistrates and municipal assembly were those of the confederation. On the
other hand, Cirta itself possessed castella distributed
throughout the area of the High Plains and to the N
of the region: Castellum Mastarense, Elephantum, Tidditanorum, Cletianis, Thibilis, Sigus, etc. After the dissolution of this confederation, Cirta recovered its role
as a capital when it headed Numidia Cirtenses (created
under Diocletian) and, later, all of Numidia. At that
time it changed its name to Constantina in honor of
the emperor who restored it to its splendor after a
siege undertaken by the usurper Domitius Alexander.
Constantine was an important center of the Christian
community as early as the 3d c. It became the chief
town of an ecclesiastical district and was an important
city until the end of antiquity. Although many ancient
cities disappeared during the Arab Middle Ages, Constantine survived. The mediaeval built-up area, and later
that of Turkish times, covered the pre-Roman and Roman constructions. The growth of the town after the
French conquest was scarcely more favorable to the
preservation of monuments—the entire necropolis of
the Koudiat was razed in order to build new districts.
What we know of the ancient town is from inscriptions
and occasional chance finds rather than from surviving
monuments.
The ancient town occupied a plateau of trapezoidal
shape, well protected to the E and to the S by the deep
canyon of the Rhummel, and to the W by another sheer
slope. One approached the town from the SW by a
spur which linked the center to the hill of the Koudiat.
(A part of the material from the necropolis there is kept
in the Constantine Museum.) However, the settlement
certainly expanded beyond the plateau in ancient times.
In the last few years a dwelling has been identified down
towards Sidi M'cid. It is relatively well dated by Campanian pottery, and thus must have been occupied at
least during the 1st c. B.C.
Outside the town, a large number of Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions, as well as some Greek and Latin
ones, found in the locality of El Hofra, demonstrate the
existence of a sanctuary dedicated to Saturn and reflecting the influence of Punic civilization on the capital
of the native kingdom of Massinissa. Some inscriptions
are dated to years of the reign of this sovereign and
of his successors; the stones are deposited in the museum.
In the town itself, little remains visible. A rampart
or embankment wall built of ashlar with embossinents
is preserved inside the military citadel. At the time of
the conquest, cisterns and temples were identified, always within the Casbah. In addition, the remains of
bridges can be seen in the canyon of the Rhummel.
Piers and arches of the aqueduct which fed the town
stand upstream in the valley.
The Constantine Museum has collected a certain
number of artifacts from the town. Also some inscriptions can be seen there. Many items in the museum collection come from sites in the vicinity (Tiddis, Kalaa des
Beni Hammad, or ancient towns of the High Plains).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Gsell,
Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie (1911) 17, no. 126; H. G. Pflaum,
Inscriptions
latines de l'Algérie II (1941) no. 468; A. Berthier and
R. Charlier,
Le sanctuaire punique d'El Hofra à Constantine (1955). See also
Recueil des notices et memoires
de la société archéologique de Constantine.
P.-A. FÉVRIER
