Sbeitla

SBEITLA. - Sufetula in Byzacena, today S. in Tunisia, was a notable Roman city that appears as early as the time of Vespasian (CIL, VIII, no. 23216); having later become a municipium and a colony (ibid., no. 11340), it began to decline under Vandal rule.

It was conquered from the Byzantines by Belisarius in 533; governed by John Troglita in 546; chosen in the following century by the patrician Gregory as his capital: but it was besieged, taken and sacked by the Arabs in 647 (Ch. Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, Paris 1896, pp. 370, 557 ff.). As many as seven Roman roads led to or terminated at S.; of these, two communicated with Carthage, two with Tebessa, one with Thysdrus (today el-Djem), one with Thenac (today Thina), one with Tacape (today Gabes). Among the bishops of S. are known Privatianus in 256, also remembered in the Jeronymian Martyrology on 7 May; Jucundus, who was present at Carthage at the Conference of 411 and at the Council of 419; Praesidius, who is remembered in 484 by Victor of Vita (Persecut. Vandal., II, 16).

Imposing are the ruins of the Capitolium of S. with its three temples (A. Merlin, Forum et églises de Sufetula, Paris 1912), of the triumphal arch and of the insulae of the city. As early as 1883 remains of Christian buildings appeared; on an architectural fragment discovered at that time one reads: « Hic domus + oratio[nis] » (CIL, VIII, no. 11414): it must have been at the entrance of the basilica called of the presbyter « Serbus », with three naves divided by columns, whose ruins were identified by A. Merlin between 1907-1909; in the presbytery were found tombs and four sarcophagi of local stone with epigraphic fragments (CIL, VIII, no. 23230, b); another fragment refers to a presbyter « [qui fuit in presbiterio anis X » (ibid., no. 23230, c), a third inscription belonged to a « Natalika fidelis ».

Notable is the inscription of the presbyter Serbus preceded by the monogrammatic cross inserted within a festoon (A. Merlin, op. cit., p. 30, fig. 4). The remains of the altar and of the marble chancel screens that surrounded it were also found. Annexed to the building was the quadrangular baptistery with a hexagonal interior; two stairways with two steps led down to a platform from which, by means of four steps arranged in a cross, one descended into the circular basin; to the north-west there was another structure, perhaps the consignatorium.

To the north-east of the three Capitoline temples A. Merlin discovered in 1907 a church divided by double columns into three naves (m. 35 x 15.60); columns were also placed against the perimeter walls; the many remains found showed that it was covered by a tiled roof, while the floor in the presbytery was mosaic; the entrances were one on the right side, with doors opening onto a small portico, and the other on the left. A. Merlin called it that of bishop Bellator, because of the inscription of « Bellator ep(is)c(opu)s » found there (op. cit., p. 39, fig. 8). The apse opposite the presbytery was added later, to contain tombs. In the portico was found the mutilated inscription of an Adeodatus (A. Merlin, op. cit., p. 40). To the north of the church a fragment of a metrical inscription was found (A. Merlin, in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1909, p. 168). To the north-west there was found in 1908 a chapel excavated in 1911, which was called that of bishop Jucundus because of the following inscription engraved on a closing slab of a sarcophagus of limestone: « - hic inventa est D(e)p(ositio) s(an)c(t)i Iucundi ep(i)sc(opi) per inquisitione(m) Amaci ep(i)sc(o)pi ». In 1911 A. Merlin found to the north-east of this chapel another basilica (id., L'église du prêtre Vitalis à Sufetula, Tunis 1917). It had five naves with paired columns, with a mosaic floor; the central nave was in part separated from the others by marble chancel screens. The apse had a bench around it and its vault was lightened by terracotta conduits. The baptistery, boat-shaped, with two stairways of three steps, was covered with mosaic. In black tesserae is the inscription « Vitalis et Cardela votum s(olveru)nt ». But the building has been given the name of Vitalis because of the singular mosaic inscription of the said presbyter who died in the 28th year of the reign of Genseric, on 12 September of 455 or 466. The inscription is today in Tunis in the Bardo Museum. It is preceded by the ♗ and continues with the formula « in nomine Patris et Fili et Sp(iritu)s s(an)c(ti) Amen »; then one reads: « spes mihi multa manet nam venturum spero D(omi)-n(u)m qui cuncta creasti tibi ut cineres istos suscites ipse potens (reminiscences of I Cor. 4, 13; 13, 13, and Hebr. 10, 37; 11, 19), h(a)ec est speciosior sole et super omnem stellarum dispositionem luci comparata inbenitur prior (Sap. 7, 29), dum sit una omnium potens et in se permanens omnia innodans (Sap. 7, 27 with innodans in place of innovat of the Vulgate) natus anno XXVIII regis Ge(n)sirici pridie idus septembres Vitalis pr(e)sb(yter) vidi annis XXXVIII requi(esco) ho(die) hic positus placida in pace reserbor pulberi pulbis » (reminiscence of Gen. 3, 19).

Behind the baptistery an inscription was found with: « Urbanus sacerdos donum fecit ». Ten fragments of white marble of a mensa present Adam and Eve, the scene of Noah in the ark, Elijah taken up to heaven, David and Goliath, the resurrection of Lazarus. Near the amphitheatre were found the remains of a small church with three naves and of another larger one, also with three naves with a mosaic floor with scenes of the seasons (A. Merlin, in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1910, pp. 196-98). L. Poinsot found near the railway line to Henchir-Souatir the remains of a chapel with three naves with paired columns; there remained the four bases of an altar forming a rectangle of m. 1 × 1.30, with a mosaic representing the ♗ between two festoons of flowers. The floor of the naves was also mosaic; in the choir the inscription was in mosaic: « Sanctus Honorius episcop(us) vixit in pace an. LXXX, m. v. deposi(t)us die i(dus) o(ct)obr » (L. Poinsot, La chapelle de l'évêque Honorius [environs de S.], in Bull. arch. du Comité, 1932-33, pp. 783-800). The excavations have yielded the names of other bishops: of S., Amacus, Bellator, Urbanus, Honorius. S. still had a bishop at the beginning of the 8th century (A. Gelzer, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2 [1893], p. 26); moreover the names of the presbyters Serbus, Vitalis, Cresconius (A. Merlin, Inscriptions latines, etc., no. 377) and Rusticus (ibid., no. 378) have been ascertained; of a « Pompeianus magister militum fidelis in Christo » (CIL, VIII, no. 23230), of two soldiers and of many of the faithful.

In the southern part of the city near two Byzantine forts, in part perhaps used as monasteries, a limestone block was found belonging to the door of one of the said buildings, on which one reads the following dedication, partly in verse, attributed to the 6th century: « ♗ qui celat secreta regis quam mundus adorat / hic requies (h)abet et hic pax a(eterna) moretur / ♗ Domus D(e)o miserante villatici biri togati pr(a)efactorii Eidor(i) ». Moreover the remains of a church have appeared in which a marble inscription of the same age as the preceding one recalls the deposition of relics (brandea) of Sts. Protasius, Gervasius and Tryphon (G.-C. Picard, Rapport sur l'archéologie romaine en Tunisie dans le second semestre 1948, in Bull. archéol. du Comité, 1949, pp. xv-xvi; id., S. Fouilles et découvertes, in Fasti archaeol., 3 [1948, published in 1950], p. 461 ff.).

Enrico Josi