Bulla Regia

Bulla Regia is an ancient site located in the North-West of the Tunisia. Formerly located between Carthage and Hippone, with the foot of the Djebel R' bia, the site is close to the town of Jendouba.

History

The origins Berbères of Bulla Regia are probably former to its punic culture : Greek Céramique , that one can date from the IV {{E}} front century J. - C., there is found. With the III {{E}} front century J. - C., it is under the hegemony of Carthage bus of the inscriptions reveal the presence of a worship offered to the god Ba' Al Hammon and the burial of died in funerary vases of punic type. The local museum preserves also elements of a temple dedicated to Tanit.

The city forms then part of the territory conquered by Rome in 203 av. J. - C., at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, but becomes, in 156 av. J. - C., the capital of the kingdom numide of Massinissa which remains a kingdom customer of Rome but recovers the “grounds of its ancestors” (according to an inscription). The city receives its then epithet of royal ( Regia ). At that time, the streets are organized according to an orthogonal plan of type hellenistic which partly replaces the old plan of the lanes and the Insula E.

The Romans take again the direct control of the city in 46 av. J. - C. at the time of the organization of the province of Numidie by Jules César which rewards control (undoubtedly neutral) for Bulla Regia in the civil wars which make rage in Rome. It grants the free statute of city then to him. Under the emperor Hadrian, it takes the name of Colonia Aelia Hadriana Augusta Bulla Regia, giving to its inhabitants full the Roman Citoyenneté.

Bulla Regia declines slowly under the Byzantine Empire. As elsewhere at the end of the empire, the local Aristocratie was able to increase the size of its houses at the expense of public space: the room of the fisherman is thus adapted to connect two insulae separate and transforms a transportation route into dead end. Finally, a Earthquake destroys Bulla Regia while making crumble the upper floors on the underground stages. Sand will protect the abandoned sites which will be forgotten until the first excavations begin, in 1906, partly stimulated by the destruction of the monumental entry of the Roman city. The forum, surrounded by Gantry S, is excavated in 1949 - 1952.

Elements of the site

Bulla Regia is known for its dwellings, dating from the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, which offer the characteristic to be equipped with an underground stage (reproduction of less width of the upper floor which is on one level with the street). The Cuisine S, which require an aired space, are only in the upper part. There the inhabitants find a protection against the Chaleur and the Sun and undoubtedly also the means of increasing inhabited surface.

This architecture domesticates offers three plan-types for these stages in basement:

In the richest residences, as the house of hunting , the parts are distributed on two sides of small a square Péristyle which is the central source of ventilation and light. There are not indeed a Atrium in the houses of Roman Africa but rather a true court with open sky as in the houses of the Médina S or in certain punic dwellings.
the house of Amphitrite illustrates the second plan-type: the Escalier of access leads to a length Vestibule which serves perpendicularly opened parts. Certain parts open, by broad windows, on large and deep intake air and common light placed behind their head wall.
the plan-type of the other houses is more flexible: the staircase of descent emerges in a corridor which rather freely serves the parts which can face or be distributed at the ends of a corridor.

In the three cases, the system of circulation of the hot air which comes to meet the freshness of the water of the underground wells constitutes an effective process of Climatisation.

In the house of hunting , one thinks of recognizing a private Basilique having of a Abside, a Transept dependant and spaces which would be a Nef if it were about a church. It is an example of fusion between public and domestic architecture initiated by the reigning class of IVe front century J. - C., spaces soon christianized while becoming churches and Cathédrale S.

Several mosaic is preserved on the site whereas others can be seen with the National museum of Bardo. The mosaics of Bulla Regia will not be exceeded in North Africa where the Roman art of the grounds in mosaic reaches its apotheosis. The most famous example is in the house of Amphitrite and represents a marine Venus (and not Amphitrite, confusion being at the origin of the name given to the house). It decorates the Triclinium basement.

The site of Bulla Regia also shelters a theater and remarkable thermal baths.

Sources

Ammar Mahjoubi, Cities and urban structures of the Roman province of Africa , university Center of publication, 2000
Guillemette Mansour, Tunisia, Museum with open sky , Dad editions, 2003.
Yvon Thébert, “the romanisation of an indigenous city of Africa: Bulla Regia”, '' Mélanges of the French School of Rome. Antiquity '', 85,1973, p. 247-312

External bonds

Photographs of Bulla Regia
Richard Stillwell, '' Bulla Regia, Tunisia '', ED. Princeton Encyclopedia off Classical Sites, 1976

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