HADRUME´TUM
HADRUME´TUM or
ADRUME´TUM, and in late writers (Mart. Cap. 6.216) ADRUME´TUS (
ἡ Ἀδρύμη, ὁ Ἀδρύμης, -ητος, Strab. xiii. p.834,
Plb. 15.5.3,
15.3,
Steph. B. sub voce ἡ Ἀδρύμητος, Scyl. p. 49,
Steph. B. sub voce Ἀδρυμητός, Appian,
App. Pun. 33,
47;
Ἀδρούμητος or
Ἀδρούμιττος, Ptol. 4.3. § § 9, 37, 8.14.6;
Ἀδρούμητον, Stadiasm., &c.;
Ἀδράμητος, Procop.
B. V. 1.17, 2.23; see, on the various forms of the name, Groskurd's note to his translation of Strabo, vol. iii. p. 435: Eth.
Ἀδρυμητινός, and sometimes also
Ἀδρυμήσιος and
Ἀδρυμήτιος, Steph. B. sub voce Hadrumetinus:
Susa, Ru.), one of the chief cities of Africa Propria, and, after the division of the province, the capital of Byzacena, stood on the sea-coast, a little within the S. extremity of the Sinus Neapolitanus (
Gulf of Hammamet).
It was a Phoenician colony, older than Carthage (
Sal. Jug. 19), under the dominion of which city it fell to the extent described under CARTHAGO. Pliny mentions it among the
oppida libera of Byzacium (5.4. s. 3; comp. Mela, 1.7.2). Trajan made it a colony, and its full name is found on inscriptions as COL. CONCORDIA ULPIA TRAJANA AUGUSTA FRUGIFERA HADRUMETINA, and on coins as COLONIA CONCORDIA JULIA HADRUMETINA PIA. (Gruter, p. 362; Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 134.)
It stood in a very fertile district, as one of the above titles denotes, and was one of the chief sea-ports for the great corn-producing country of Byzacium. Its site formed an amphitheatre overlooking the sea, and surrounded by strong walls, which did not, however, enclose its harbour (Cothon), which lay immediately below it. (
Bell. Afr. 3,5, 62, 63; Ruins; the statement of the
Periplus, that it was
ἀλίμενος, does not prove that its harbour was at a distance, but simply that it had been choked up by the sands which are always encroaching on this coast.)
It is often mentioned in the Punic and Civil Wars. (Polyb., Appian,
ll. cc.; Liv. 30.29;
Nep. Hann. 6;
Caes. B.C. 2.28;
Bell. Afr. ll. cc.) Having shared the fate which so many other cities of Africa suffered from the Vandals, it was restored by Justinian, and named
JUSTINIANA or
JUSTINIANOPOLIS (Procop.
l.c.: Forbiger, vol. ii. p. 845, asserts, without giving his authority, that it was afterwards named HERACLEA, after the emperor Heraclius, and on this ground he follows Shaw in placing it at
Herklah, 10 miles higher up along the coast; but the distances in the Itinerary, pp. 52, 53, 56, clearly show the identity of
Susa with Hadrumetum, and of
Herklah with HORREA COELIA: the name of the latter place suggests that it was a great depot for the agricultural produce which formed the staple of the commerce of Hadrumetum.
The conjecture of Barth deserves notice, that the name
Susa may be the representative of
ἡ σώζουσα, as we know to be the case with Apollonia on the Cyrenaic coast.)
This city was the native place of the Caesar Clodius Albinus. (Capitolin. Clod.
Alb. 1.)
It is one of Ptolemy's points of recorded astronomical observations, having 14 hrs. 12 min. in its longest day, and being 1 hr. 35 min. W. of Alexandria (8.14.6).
Extensive ruins were still to be seen at
Susa in the time of the Arabian geographer Abou Obeyd Bekri of Cordova, who describes, among the remains of many other great ancient buildings, two in particular: the one, which he calls
Mela'b, an immense building of light volcanic stone from Etna, with arched galleries, appears to have been a theatre or amphitheatre; and the other, which he calls
El Kubtas, was a temple on an enormous basement four steps high, of which a quadrangular mass of masonry still in existence, and called the
Makluba, i. e.
fallen, is supposed by Barth to be the remains.
At the present time, however, the ruins are of little magnitude; consisting of some remains of a mole which formed a part of the ancient harbour, some traces of the walls, chiefly on the SW., eight great reservoirs lying parallel to one another, scattered fragments of pillars, a few inscriptions, and, at a short distance from the city, a few mosaics, which seem to mark the site of the villas of the wealthy citizens. (Shaw,
Travels in Barbary, &c. p. 105, 2nd ed.; Barth,
Wanderungen durch dus Punische und Kyrenäische Küstenland, pp. 152, foll.: it seems worth while to correct Dr. Barth's extraordinary error in making the ship of Adramyttium in which St. Paul sailed,
Acts, 27.2, a ship of Hadrumetum; for the position, see the map on p. 532.)
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