Fourth Dimension Tours

Remains of the earliest Pheonician settlement at Sabratha have been found beneath the Roman town in the are between the forum and the sea. Under the earliest permanent houses beaten floors of temporary hutsalternate with layers of wind-blown sand, evidence of a long antecedent period during which the site was only seasonally visited by Phoenician traders. The hut floors have yielded Greek pottery of the sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. the earliest permanent settlement probably dates from the late fifth century: it consisted of small-roomed dwellings, the foundations of which have come to light under the north side of the courtyard of the Temple of Liber Pater.

During the next two centuries the settlement outgrew this wall and traces of Phoenician town seems to have been situated in the area later occupied by the Roman Forum, under which remains of a large Phoenician public building and several houses have been found. The Phoenician town was laid out on an irregular plan, which has survived, despite Roman rebuilding, in the area north of the Temple of Liber Pater.

The transformation of the Phoenician town into a Roman city began near the end of the first century B.C., but proceeded more slowly than at Lepcis. The nucleus of the early imperial city consisted of the Forum with the Temples of Liber Pater and Serpais, whence it expanded inland on a more or less regular rectangular grid. The southern limits of the early imperial city have not yet been determined. The second half of the second century saw the development of a new urban district beside the sea to the east of existing city. The new district was laid out on a rectangular plan leading up the sea front to the theatre as its culminating feature, and its main axis was thus at right angles to the coastal road, which it incorporated as its most important transverse street.
Unlike Lepcis, Sabratha was not tempted by imperial favours to live beyond her means; and the third and fourth centuries here are not marked by the rapid decline which we find at the larger city.

The inclusion of the outlying Temple of Isis (17) within the defensive wall built at some time during this period suggests that Sabratha had not yet greatly shrunk, at all events on the east; and in the late fourth century considerable civic vitality is still evident in the reconstruction of public buildings after the catastrophe probably to be ascribed to the Austrians.

Serious collapse comes only in the fifth century, under Vandal rule, and leads to the abandonment of the whole Theatre district except for the churches and of a large area of the early imperial city. The Byzantine walls enclose only a fraction of the territory covered by the city at its greatest extent.

The Excavations
The Entrance 1 to the excavations lies directly on the cardo or main axial thoroughfare of the earlier city, which leads north-westwards to the Forum. After passing a cross-roads and a large private house with a bath (on the left), the visitor reaches the Byzantine Gate 2. like the rest of the Byzantine defences, the gate was built of re-used materials; in its original form it consisted of two rectangular towers flanking a narrow gateway, of which the limestone threshold survives in situ. The exterior faces of the two towers were nearly flush with the curtain wall: only their lowest courses are preserved, but the eastern tower shows traces of a guard-room. Modern steps lead down from the inside of the gate to the Roman street, the level of which was considerably below that of Byzantine street. At a later date a new doorway was constructed to the south of the old by adding a rectangular pier to the outer face of each towe. By this time the ground level had again risen considerably, and a step up to the new doorway was formed from a split cipolino column.