SIMITHU
(Chemtou) Tunisia.
Tucked between the Jebel Chemtou and the wadi Medjerda and
its tributary the wadi Melah, the city was situated at the
junction of two great routes, one going from Carthage
to Hippo through Bulla Regia, the other from Thabarka
to Sicca Veneria. The city owed its growth to the rich soil
and its wealth to celebrated quarries of yellow-orange
Numidian marble (
giallo antico) that were part of the
imperial domain. A municipium from the early days of
the empire, the city became Colonia Julia Augusta Numidica Simithu from the end of the principate of Augustus
or one of his immediate successors, its citizens being
members of the Quirina tribe.
The site covers a fairly large area and has many remains (only partially excavated) besides the quarries. We shall note only the most outstanding remains.
On the hilltop near the quarries is a ruined Roman
temple. Built of a masonry of large blocks, it was erected
on the site of an earlier monument, probably Punic, of
which several architectural fragments in Greek style and
ornamentation have been found as well as some inscriptions and fragments of geometric mosaic. At the foot of
the hill are some large ruined baths, their water supplied
from a great cistern of seven parallel vaulted rooms and
connected to an aqueduct on the left bank of the wadi
Melah. Also at the foot of the hill is a theater, of which
the orchestra, paved with a geometric mosaic 12 m in
radius, the pulpitum, and part of the scena and tiers,
have been excavated. A semicircular monument built of
a masonry of large stones opened onto a piazza (40 x
23 m) paved with limestone and shale slabs and had a
system of pipes running through it. This monument has
been identified as a schola giving onto the forum. Here
also was a fountain with a large basin.
Nearby are two sizable rubblework structures, their
apses still standing. They have been identified by some
as a civil basilica, as a Christian basilica by others. One
of these buildings, oriented N-E and measuring 24 x
10.78 m, was designed with an apse at each end, one of
which is remarkably well preserved; 6.9 m in diameter
and 3.45 m deep, it had three tall, narrow niches not a
little reminiscent of those in a library or schola.
On the river are the remains of a gigantic bridge, now
badly eroded, built in Trajan's reign; its five semicircular
arches were supported by piles of ashlar with a core of
concrete. On the left bank immediately downstream
from the bridge beyond its guard-wall, and level with the
river, is a structure with a system of channels, locks, and
sluices. No doubt it was designed to drive wheels for
some industrial or agricultural purpose. Water was provided by a penstock that brought the water from well upstream down towards a series of reservoirs whence it was piped off by a conduit to the area. Still on the left
bank, upstream from the bridge near the locks, is a building once identified as an inn.
Two hundred m from the theater, along the Sicca-Thabraca road, of which a fragment still survives a little
to the N, the remains of a triumphal gate were once to
be seen. Today all that is left are the bases of the two
piers, some 6 m apart. Another, larger triumphal gate
stood on the other great road from Carthage to Hippo,
going towards Bulla Regia. Only its bases have survived.
Beyond these are the necropoleis, one by the road to
Thabarka, the other towards Bulla Regia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Cagnat & Saladin, “Chemtou,”
ArchMiss 13 (1887) 385-427; J. Toutain, “Le théâtre romain
de Simithu,”
MélRome 12 (1892) 359-69
P; id., “Fouilles à Chemtou,”
MémAcInscr 10 (1893) 453-73.
A. ENNABLI
