Fourth Dimension Tours

Unlike Lepcis and Sabratha, the site of Oea has been continuously occupied from antiquity until the present day; and, with the notable exception of the arch of Marcus Aurelius, the buildings of the ancient city have vanished under the houses of medival and modern Tripoli. Systematic excavation has, therefore, f the question; but a number of sporadic finds have been made in course of demolitions and building operations and something can also be inferred from the form of the later city.

Of Phoenician Oea no trace has come to light the settlement probably lay in the north-eastern part of the area now covered by the Old City, close to the roadstead formed by the reefs now incorporated in the north-west mole of the modern harbour. The rectangular lay-out of Roman Oea is still reflected in the street plan of the Old City. The cardo and a northerly documents can be recognized in the long streets converging on the Arch of Marcus Aurelius from the south-east ( Bab el-Hurria) and south-west (Sciara el Chebira), and the line of a more southerly decumanus is preserved in the Sciara Homet Garian-Sciara El-Harrara. Part of a Roman marine esplanade running parallel to these two decumani has been discovered near the site of the former burg et-Trab (Forte del Faro).

Traces of Roman buildings have come to light at several points within the area of the old city and its immediate vicinity: houses with mosaic floors and painted mural decoration between Bab el Gedid and the sea; a colonnaded building beside the north-west esplanade; a building which may have been a private house on the waterfront north-west of the Castle; pottery kilns under the Electricity Works. Excavations under the Castle itself have revealed an extensive complex of foundation walls and sandstone platforms, as well as many fragments of mosaic pavement and large Corinthian columns with cipolin shafts. The site appears to have been that of a large public building, perhaps a bathing establishment.

The area covered by the Roman city at its greatest extent is uncertain; but the line of the antique wall is believed to have been followed by that sector of the Islamic wall (now largely demolished) which ran from the Bab el-Gedid to the Burg el-Karma ( along the line of the present Sciara Sidi Omran) and thence north-eastward to the Dar el-Barud. A Roman gate has been rather doubtfully identified next to the Bab el-Hurria. A Neo-Punic cemetery which has come to light near the site of the former Burg Sidi el-Haddar (fortedella Vite) shows that this area, although almost certainly inside the wall, was not built up.

The ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS stands in a piazza facing the Bab el-Barr and the harbour, near the north end of the Old City. It was built at the expense of a local citizen and magistrate, Caius Calpurnius Celsus, and dedicated in A.D. 163 to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus by the proconsul Sergius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus and his legate Uttedius Marcellus, the dedicatory inscription adds that the arch was built on public land. The site was, as we have seen, on the intersection of two main streets of the ancient city; and a four-sided design with two arched passageways crossing at right angles was accordingly chosen. The greater length of the north-east and south-west sides suggests that the approach from the harbour was considered the more important. The arch was built entirely of marble, a fact which is also carefully recorded in the inscription. It is almost certainly the work of Greek masons.

The decoration of the north-east and south-west faces is mainly architectural. On these two sides the archways were flanked by pairs of detached Corinthian columns standing on tall pedestals projecting from the piers, and supporting on their capitals corresponding projections of the main entablature and cornice. Their fluted shafts sprang from rings of acanthus foliage. The niches in the piers contains imperial statues; a statue of Lucius Verus was discovered infront of the south-west face. The medallion portraits above the niches are too damaged for identification. Cupids holding garlands fill the spaces between the pilaster capitals, winged Victories the spandrels. Under the Victories on the south-west side appear the attributes of Apollo and Mierva, the parton deities of Oea: the god's tripod and raven of the left, the goddess's helmet, shield, spear and owl on the right.
The north-west and south-east sides also resembled one another closely, so far as the damaged state of the south-east side allows one to judge. Their treatment is more sculptural. The piers are carved in relief with captive barbarian families grouped at the foot of trophies of arms. In the left-hand spandrel Apollo drives a chariot drawn by a pair of winged griffins, beneath which the god's raven, lyre, bow, quiver and laurel-branch can be distinguished. Apollo is balanced in the right-hand spandrel by Minerva in a chariot drawn by winged sphinxes; the goddess's helmet, on which her owl perches, lies on the ground below, together with her shield, spear and olive-branch.

The entablature is only partly preserved; it bore the dedication inscription, which was repeated on all four sides. To put the inscription on the entablature was evidently an afterthought, since the architrave mouldings and the frieze scroll had to be erased to make room for it. No trace of an attic has survived. The arch is covered by an octagonal dome formed of three rings of voussoirs with an octagonal closing-piece in the centre; the rectangular plan of the arch is adapted to the octagon by means of horizontal slabs resting across the shorter ends.

During excavations carried out to reveal the ancient street surface in the neighborhood of the arch, fragments of the entablature and pediment of a small temple came to light and are now exhibited on the north-west side of the piazza. An inscription on the entablature records that the temple was dedicated in A.D 183-184 by L.Aemilius Frontinus to the Genius, or guardian spirit, of the Colony of Oea.

In the north wall of the chamber are two rectangular recesses each containing a built-in tomb chest. The more important burial, which faced the entrance, is that of
Aelia Arisuth, whose name appears on a painted roundel supported by two winged genii on the wall above the recess. A striking portrait of Arisuth, framed in a richly decorated wreath held up by two small female attendants, is painted on the back wall of the recess. The intense expression of her face recalls contemporary Egyptian mummy portraits. On each torch, symbol of the life that has been extinguished; but on the ceiling resurrection and the afterlife are symbolized by a peacock and a vine with birds perching in it.

When the tomb was discovered at the beginning of his century, the plaster coated lid of the tomb-chest was still intact and bore a paiting of a lioness inscribed quae lea jacet (a lioness lies here). 'Lion' was one of the seven grades of initiation into the mysteries of the Persian god Mithras, whose cult spread throughout the Roman empire in the wake of the Roman legions. Before the discovery of the Gargaresc tomb it was believed that women were excluded from Mithraic initiation; but the title of 'lioness' applied to Arisuth can only mean that she was in some sense an initiate. At the west end of the lid, over the place occupied by the head of the dead, are the remains of a plaster basin with a hole in the bottom, through which liquid offerings were poured. The recess is flanked by two acolytes wearing dalmatics and bearing lighted candles. The front of the tomb-chest and the adjoining parts of the wall are painted with a scene from the circus. The course is represented by the two metae or turning -points, each surmounted by three pylons, and four chariots are shown competing, one for each of the four racing colours. Blue is winning, white has come to grief, green reins to avoid the 'shipwreck', and red brings up the rear. Between the red and green chariots a blue jubilatory carries the prize vase towards the winner. Blue we must infer was Arisuth's colour, which has run and won the race of life.