Evening star., 1925-02-15

light of day, remarkably we'll pre-
served, a large part OF that Roman
city, abandoned there many CEN
turtles to the desert sands. Leptis
Magma was one of three cities which
in Roman times gave the name
Tripolis to the narrow strip between
sea and mountain and between the
two syrtes (now the Gulf OF sidra
| and the Gulf of Cabes) on the Medi
terranean coast of Africa. The three
cities were founded by the Phoeni-
clans before the dawn of history.
The most important Of them was
Oea. The Romans later changed its
name to Tripolis and then called the
district Tripolitana. The city survives
as the modern Tripoli. When in 1911
the Italians took away from the
Turks the great vilayet (regency) Of
Tripoli (of which the district called
very small par), they changed it's
name to Tripolitania- In Roman
times Tripolitana (the coastal dis
trict, for Roman sway scarcely ex-
tended beyond the mountains) was
far more fertile than it Is at present,
but presumably its main Importance
then, as now, was due to the fact
that Oea (Tripolis) was the chief
Mediterranean gateway to the Sahara,
.
caravan routes, one due south to Lake
Chad, one southwest to Timbuktu,
one south by east to Wadai and Dar-
fur. Leptis Magma (about 60 miles
east of Tripolis) shared in this cara
van trade, but commercially was not
comparable to Oea (Tripolis), yet
from what the excavations are re-
vealing, 1t would seem to have been
a far more splendid city. Why? The
Poll nlo
ible: Septimius Severus (died A. d.
211), one Of the greatest of the
Roman Emperors, was born at Leptis
Magma. He is known to have beauti-
fed the city. 1t does not seem i'm
probable that he completely rebuilt
1t, with fortifcations, an imperial
palace, baths, theater, circus, marble
Quays, lighthouse, etc, all in style
Of great magnificence.
That is not very curious. What is
really curious is that SO much of Sep
timius Severus' city escaped destruction
before the desert engulfed the site. The
city was at the very verge OF the Roman
occupation, was the most exposed Of the
great Roman settlements to raids by the
nomads, commerce drifted away, the
harbor silted up and the city was early
abandoned. No doubt the nomads has
tened the evacuation by destroying the
plantations thereabout and SO giving
free scope to the drifting sands. For
tunately for us, all that deserted splen-
dor seems to have had little interest for
the aboriginal tribesmen. and before the
Arabs arrived in the seventh century
and the sand covering was already deep
Forty huge columns that lowered
above the waste they transported some
80 miles and built into a mosque but
they made no further dispu with the
desert
Prof. Bruno Roselli, back Tin the
United States) from the site, intimates
that the find is at least architecturally
more important than Pompeii. Many
statues and other fine art objects are
being turned up and will furnish the ex-
perts much to wrangle about. The
Italian governor OF Tripolitania is build
ing good road from Tripoli to Leptis
Magma, and If the find is all it's
Cracked up to be- the money spent on
excavation and restoration will soon be
recouped from tourists.
No doubt the coastal district once
known as Tripoitana is destined to re-