Baths of Antoninus

Last updated

Baths of Antoninus
Antonine Baths at Carthage.jpg
Ruins of the Baths of Antoninus
Location Carthage, Tunisia
Region North Africa
Coordinates 36°51′16″N10°20′06″E / 36.854321°N 10.335104°E / 36.854321; 10.335104
Type Thermae
Dimensions : Over 200 m on 100 m
History
Builder Antoninus Pius
Founded145-162
Official nameArchaeological Site of Carthage
TypeCultural
Criteriaii, iii, vi
Designated1979 (3rd session), together with Carthage [1]
Reference no. 37
Region Arab States

The Baths of Antoninus or Baths of Carthage, located in Carthage, Tunisia, are the largest set of Roman thermae built on the African continent and one of three largest built in the Roman Empire. They are the largest outside mainland Italy. [2] The baths are also the only remaining Thermae of Carthage that dates back to the Roman Empire's era. The baths were built during the reign of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. [3]

Contents

After the Punic's were defeated during the Third Punic War (149–146 BC), Roman traditions and customs took hold of Carthage. Carthage eventually became the third city for the allied Berber kings of the Romans. [4] Under the control of Emperor Hadrian, the bathhouses were constructed in Carthage along the Mediterranean Sea. The bathhouses were given the name of the previous emperor, Antoninus Pius. The baths were in use until Vandals destroyed them after invading Tunisia in 439 AD. The remains of the cite are mostly in ruins, but few pieces have been preserved. [5]

The baths are at the South-East of the archaeological site, near the presidential Carthage Palace. The archaeological excavations started during the Second World War and concluded by the creation of an archaeological park for the monument. It is also one of the most important landmarks of Tunisia. The Baths of Antoninus are structurally unique compared to other Roman bathhouses. The clay soil that bordered the Mediterranean Sea created a need for a larger foundation. [6] The typical structure of the bathhouses had service areas in the basement, but the soft clay would not accommodate such developments. The designers had to adapt and raise the structure of this particular bath, making the Baths of Antoninus taller than other Roman bathhouses.

The baths are today part of the Archaeological site of Carthage on the list of World Heritage sites of UNESCO. On 17 February 2012, the Tunisian government proposed the Roman hydraulic complex Zaghouan-Carthage, that the baths are part of, as a future World Heritage site. [7]

Location

Map of the site of Carthage, the Baths of Antoninus are indicated as number 15 Carthage archaeological sites map-fr.svg
Map of the site of Carthage, the Baths of Antoninus are indicated as number 15
A reconstruction of the baths' floor plan Plan thermes d-antonin.jpg
A reconstruction of the baths' floor plan

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carthage</span> Archaeological site in Tunisia

Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilisation of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africa (Roman province)</span> Roman province in north Africa

Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sidra. The territory was originally and still is inhabited by Berbers, known in Latin as the Mauri, indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt. In the 9th century BC, Semitic-speaking Phoenicians from West Asia built settlements along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping. Carthage, rising to prominence in the 8th century BC, became the predominant of these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utica, Tunisia</span> Ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian city

Utica was an ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian city located near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean, between Carthage in the south and Hippo Diarrhytus in the north. It is traditionally considered to be the first colony to have been founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa. After Carthage's loss to Rome in the Punic Wars, Utica was an important Roman colony for seven centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byrsa</span>

Byrsa was a walled citadel above the Phoenician harbour in ancient Carthage, Tunisia, as well as the name of the hill it rested on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maktar</span> Town in Siliana Governorate, Tunisia

Maktar or Makthar, also known by other names during antiquity, is a town and archaeological site in Siliana Governorate, Tunisia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thuburbo Majus</span>

Thuburbo Majus is a large Roman site in northern Tunisia. It is located roughly 60 km southwest of Carthage on a major African thoroughfare. This thoroughfare connects Carthage to the Sahara. Other towns along the way included Sbiba, Sufes, Sbeitla, and Sufetula. Parts of the old Roman road are in ruins, but others do remain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Carthage</span> City of ancient Rome

Roman Carthage was an important city in ancient Rome, located in modern-day Tunisia. Approximately 100 years after the destruction of Punic Carthage in 146 BC, a new city of the same name was built on the same land by the Romans in the period from 49 to 44 BC. By the 3rd century, Carthage had developed into one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire, with a population of several hundred thousand. It was the center of the Roman province of Africa, which was a major breadbasket of the empire. Carthage briefly became the capital of a usurper, Domitius Alexander, in 308–311. Conquered by the Vandals in 439, Carthage served as the capital of the Vandal Kingdom for a century. Re-conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in 533–534, it continued to serve as an Eastern Roman regional center, as the seat of the praetorian prefecture of Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punic people</span> People from Ancient Carthage

The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians, were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term Punic, the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term Phoenician, is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, following the line of the Greek East and Latin West. The largest Punic settlement was Ancient Carthage, but there were 300 other settlements along the North African coast from Leptis Magna in modern Libya to Mogador in southern Morocco, as well as western Sicily, southern Sardinia, the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, and Ibiza. Their language, Punic, was a variety of Phoenician, one of the Northwest Semitic languages originating in the Levant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bardo National Museum (Tunis)</span> National museum in Tunis, Tunisia

The Bardo National Museum or Bardo Palace is a museum of Tunis, Tunisia, located in the suburbs of Le Bardo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism in Tunisia</span>

Tourism in Tunisia is a major industry, attracting around 9.4 million arrivals annually from the year 2016 to 2020, making it one of the most visited countries in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Carthage</span> Phoenician city-state and empire

Ancient Carthage was an ancient Semitic civilisation based in North Africa. Initially a settlement in present-day Tunisia, it later became a city-state and then an empire. Founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, Carthage reached its height in the fourth century BC as one of the largest metropoleis in the world. It was the centre of the Carthaginian Empire, a major power led by the Punic people who dominated the ancient western and central Mediterranean Sea. Following the Punic Wars, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Roman-era Tunisia</span>

Roman Tunisia initially included the early ancient Roman province of Africa, later renamed Africa Vetus. As the Roman empire expanded, the present Tunisia also included part of the province of Africa Nova.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pupput</span>

Pupput, also spelled "Putput", "Pudput", "Pulpud" and "Pulpite" in Latin, sometimes located in Souk el-Obiod ou Souk el-Abiod, is a Colonia in the Roman province of Africa which has been equated with an archaeological site in modern Tunisia. It is situated on the coast near the town of Hammamet, between the two wadis of Temad to the north and Moussa to the south. Much of the Pupput is buried under modern holiday developments which have been built over the major part of the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calama (Numidia)</span> Colonia in the Roman province of Numidia

Calama was a colonia in the Roman province of Numidia situated where Guelma in Algeria now stands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zaghouan Aqueduct</span> Bridge

The Zaghouan Aqueduct or Aqueduct of Carthage is an ancient Roman aqueduct, which supplied the city of Carthage, Tunisia with water. From its source in Zaghouan it flows a total of 132 km, making it among the longest aqueducts in the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisterns of La Malga</span>

The Cisterns of La Malga or Cisterns of La Mâalga are a group of cisterns, which are among the most visible features of the archaeological site of Carthage near Tunis, Tunisia. They are some of the best preserved Roman cisterns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feradi maius</span> Locality and archaeological site in Tunisia

Pheradi Majius is a locality and archaeological site in Tunisia located at 36.250003°N 10.397047°E near the modern town of Sidi Khalifa in Sousse Governorate, Tunisia that is located at 36° 14′ 58″ N, 10° 23′ 57″E.

The Battle of Oroscopa was fought between a Carthaginian army of more than 30,000 men commanded by the general Hasdrubal and a Numidian force of unknown size under its king, Masinissa. It took place in late 151 BC near the ancient town of Oroscopa in what is now north western Tunisia. The battle resulted in a heavy Carthaginian defeat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carthage Punic Ports</span> Archeological site in Tunisia

The Carthage Punic Ports were the old ports of the city of Carthage that were in operation during ancient times. Carthage was first and foremost a thalassocracy, that is, a power that was referred to as an Empire of the Seas, whose primary force was based on the scale of its trade. The Carthaginians, however, were not the only ones to follow that policy of control over the seas, since several of the people in those times "lived by and for the sea".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makthar (archaeological site)</span> Archaeological site in west-central Tunisia

The Makthar archaeological site, the remains of ancient Mactaris, is an archaeological site in Makthar, west-central Tunisia, a town on the northern edge of the Tunisian Ridge.

References

  1. (in French) Site archéologique de Carthage (Patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco)
  2. "Where climate change threatens ancient sites and modern livelihoods". Christian Science Monitor. 10 February 2020.
  3. "How many ancient cities do you know? Quiz answers". TheGuardian.com . 15 November 2013.
  4. Phillips, Murray G. (7 October 2015). "Wikipedia and history: a worthwhile partnership in the digital era?". Rethinking History. 20 (4): 523–543. doi:10.1080/13642529.2015.1091566. ISSN   1364-2529.
  5. "7. Apuleius and Carthage", Apuleius and Antonine Rome, University of Toronto Press, pp. 126–146, 31 December 2012, retrieved 21 November 2024
  6. "Baths, therapeutic". Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  7. (in French) Dossier du complexe hydraulique romain de Zaghouan-Carthage (Unesco)

36°51′15″N10°20′06″E / 36.8543°N 10.3351°E / 36.8543; 10.3351