Diana Veteranorum
DIA´NA VETERANO´RUM a town of Numidia, on the high road from Theveste to Sitifi, by Lambese, 33 M. P. from the latter place, is identified with Izana or Zanah by inscriptions on a triumphal arch in honour of Severus at that place. (Itin. Ant. pp. 34, 35; Tab. Peut.; Shaw, Travels, &100. p. 136).
[P.S]A vicus in Numidia, 90 km SW of Constantine, it became a municipium in A.D. 162, founded for the benefit of veterans of the Third Augustan Legion. In the middle of the 3d c. there was a Christian community with a bishop. The Byzantines occupied the town.
The center covered a vast area. It is in a plain which possesses numerous oil presses and remains of farms, cisterns, and wells. An aqueduct brought water from the spring of Aïn-Soltane.
Among the monuments discovered is the forum, rectangular and paved with flagstones. On the N side at the intersection with the cardo maximus, there still stands a triumphal arch with three openings, built under Macrinus (A.D. 217). The central arch, the largest, has two small bays at the sides. The architrave and frieze are small compared to the cornice, which has complicated moldings. The dedicatory inscription appears on the attic. Another arch with one bay stands on the decumanus maximus near the forum to the NE. There is a temple, possibly dedicated to Diana, in the SE part of the town.
Three monuments date from the Byzantine period. A church was built on the forum. It has a rectangular plan (33 x 17.1 m) and is orientated NW-SE. It includes a narrow vestibule and nave with a platform at the end; there is no apse, but the platform is flanked by two rooms on each side. A small fort (20.2 x 16.8 m) was attached to the Arch of Macrinus. Finally, a fort (61 x 53 m) was built about 100 m E of the forum. There are square towers at the corners. It was built with reused material and has produced important inscriptions; recently, a white limestone statue of a lion has been found near the W gate.
Several mausolea are found W of the ruins.
BIBLIOGRAPHYS. Gsell, Les monuments antiques de l'Algérie (1901) I 178-79; II 339-40; Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie (1911) 27, no. 62; M. Leglay, “Diana Veteranorum (Zana). Statue de lion,” Libyca 1 (1953) 284-85; Saturne africain. Monuments (1966) II 76-78.
M. LEGLAY