Sufetula
- a town in Africa, Aug. c. Donat. 6, 26.
SUFE´TULAa town of Byzacene, 25 miles S. of Sufes. In its origin it seems to have been a later and smaller place then the latter, whence its name as a diminutive--little Sufes. In process of time, however, it became a very considerable town, as it appears to have been the centre whence all the roads leading into the interior radiated. Some vast and magnificent ruins, consisting of the remains of three temples, a triumphal arch, &c., at the present Sfaitla, which is seated on a lofty plateau on the right bank of the Wed Dschmila, 80 Kilomètres SW. of Kairwan, attest its ancient importance. (See Shaw's Travels, p. 107; Pelissier, in Revue Archeol. July 1847.)
[T.H.D]At the crossroads of the highways from oases to the S to the great plains to the N, and of the mountains of the interior to the low steppes and the sahel, the city is at the heart of the high steppes. Mistress of the communications among these diverse regions, it was also at one time a center of olive culture. The site of the ancient village extends between the wadi Sbeitla to the NE and on both sides of the road from Kasserine to Sbeitla.
Founded, if not already in existence, in the era of Vespasian, it was the theater of the great confrontation between the Byzantines and the Arabs in 646. The defeat of the patrician Gregory marked the end of the town and that of the Empire.
Because of its extent and the fine preservation of some of its monuments, the site of Sufetula was often visited by travelers, beginning as early as the 18th c. with Ximenes. In 1883, Saladin and Cagnat gave an important description of it. At the end of 1904, the site was excavated and published. Numerous buildings have been uncovered: the forum, presided over by the triple capitol at one side and by the triumphal gateway at the other. This homogeneous ensemble, probably built in the middle of the 2d c. at the center of the site, was excavated and restored between 1906 and 1921.
The forum is surrounded by porticos on three sides and hemmed in by an enclosure. The capitol is made up of three juxtaposed temples, prostyle, tetrastyle, and pseudo-peripteral; the middle one, of the composite order, is more elevated than the other two, which are Corinthian. They stand on podia sheltering vaulted cellars. The triumphal gateway has a large center arch flanked by two smaller ones, carrying on the attic a dedication in honor of Antoninus Pius. In the Byzantine period, this whole complex was converted into a citadel, the openings closed, the walls raised or strengthened with reused material, among which inscriptions have been found. In the immediate neighborhood is a Byzantine cemetery.
Several streets started at the forum. Even before excavations had uncovered them, the grid plan of the town was suggested by the alignment of the visible remains of walls. Excavation confirmed this observation, but it has established that the plan of the grid was not always strictly followed.
Although few of the individual houses have been excavated or published, one of them was so extensive and rich that it has been thought to be possibly a public edifice or even a basilica. It is the Building of the Seasons, excavated partially in 1909-10 and completely uncovered in 1964; the plan which appeared from it is a vast peristyle with a great oecus with double apses.
Among the other buildings uncovered, the most important form the episcopal group; these are two large basilicas called Vitalis and Bellator, parallel to each other and separated from each other by the Jucundus Chapel. This complex is surrounded by annexes, among them small baths and probably the dwellings of the clergy. The Church of the Bellator excavated in 1907 has three naves and a double apse; it is built in part on the foundations and with the large-scale blocks of an earlier edifice. It includes several levels, which bear witness to long occupation. The Church of Vitalis seems to have been the later one, and excavations were begun in 1911 and finished in 1963. It is larger, having five naves and double apses and including several occupation levels. Its mosaic pavements are among the most varied that exist at Sufetula. Numerous tombs with epitaphs occupy the floors of the naves, among them that of the priest Vitalis, whose inscription is preserved today at the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Behind the SW apse is the baptistery, oblong in form, entirely sheathed with mosaic. Between the two basilicas, the funerary chapel of Jucundus was excavated in 1911.
The Church of Servus, several meters to the E of the Arch of Antoninus, almost square in plan, was originally a temple of African type; a large peristyle court surrounding a square cella enclosed by two exedrae opening on the area. This plan was converted to a basilica with five naves and the cella changed to a baptistery. Close to this church is a monumental fountain excavated in 1955, a large rectangular basin surrounded on three sides by a thick stylobate of worked stone.
Lower to the E-SE, in the direction of the street which leaves from the forum, is the quarter of the theater and the great baths. The theater, built against the bank of the river, was excavated completely in 1923; it appears not to have been completely finished. Later on, a statue of Dionysos on a panther was found there.
The great baths, constructed in the 3d c., were excavated during several campaigns in 1916-17, 1922, 1946-49. Several inscriptions were found there. The triumphal arch of the Tetrarchy, SE of the town, appears to be a mediocre imitation of the one at Ammaedara.
Finally, there should be mentioned the existence of an amphitheater, and a bridge-aqueduct over the wadi which, by means of three arches resting on enormous pillars, spans the ravine and led the water from the mountain towards the town.
BIBLIOGRAPHYMerlin, Forum et église de Sufetula (1912) PI; P.-M. Duval in CahTun (1964) 87-103P; in BAntFr (1964) 50-57.
A. ENNABLI