- Mactaris
- A Numidian city, it came
under Punic control from the 5th C
B.C. as the administrative to the Massyle kingdom
. In 46, although CAESAR had conquered JUBA I's
kingdom, Mactaris kept its libyan customs
(multipe-room megalithic tombs, votive steles)
and Punic language, municipal institutions
(suffetes) and religion (Tophet of Baal-Hammon,
Temple of Hathor-Miskar) right up to the 2nd
C. Promoted to the rank of colonia in 180 by
MARCUS AURELIUS, Mactaris was a big city (2
forums, 3 Baths, 1 Amphitheatre) in the centre of
urbanized area . In the 3rd C, the
rise of Christia nity meant that disused public
and religious buildings were converted into
basilicas( the Schola of the Juvenes', the Temple
of Hathor, the Baths of the Capitoline Suffetes,
and the North-Western Baths)
- It seems that after the
fall of carthage in 430 urban life continued in a
contracted from under the Vandals (Basilica of
HILDGNS) and the byzntines ( fortfications and
baths)
The Lybian-Punic
Heritage :
The tomb is made up 6
cells arranged in goups of the three. Each cells
was protected by a canopy with pillars standing
on a flagged court. These Numidian tombs - and
there are mny in the area ( Ellès site) - were
built from the 1st C.B.C on.
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The Schola of the
Juvenes :
Technical
'colleges' (like the Ostia shipwrights) and
'religious brotherhoods (the imperial cult in
carthage, or that of bocchus in Thysdrus) became
more prevalent t the start of the empire. The
Schola of Mactaris was probably the premises of a
young people's association, vouched for in the
city and put under the protection of Mars -
Augustus. Consisting of a bsilica and 2 ganaries
in the 1st C, it was rebuilt in the nxt century,
restored in 290, and converted into a Christian
Basilica in the 4th C.
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