ANTONINI AVG
PII. PP. T. DD. PP.
The bridge apparently served both as an aqueduct and a viaduct.
The existence of this river induced the late Sidi Mustafa ben Azooz, of Nefta, to endeavour to found a city here about ten years ago. He sent his son-in-law, Sidi Ahmed bin Abd-el-Melek of Siliana, to commence the necessary buildings. One very large house was commenced and even part of it roofed in, but the experiment proved a failure, no one could be induced to live here; so the building and the restoration of the aqueduct was abandoned, and now, save by a few wandering Arabs who come to pasture their flocks amongst the ruins, and wash their wool at the stream, the country is uninhabited.
Since the last Algerian insurrection a douar of Nememchas, who were then compromised and fear to return to their homes, have fixed their abode in the vicinity.
Had nothing but failure resulted from the experiment of Sidi Ahmed, it would have been a matter of small regret, but he drew his building materials, stone, and lime, in the most wanton manner, from amongst the ruins.
Squared stones all ready to his hand, and smaller ones to burn into lime, exist in abundance in every direction, but he seems to have had a decided preference for all the most exquisite morsels of sculpture that he could find. The court of the temples is full of fragments of capitals, cornices, and architraves, every one a gem, which he has thus ruthlessly broken up, and some of those yet unbroken have mineholes drilled in them ready for explosion. The fine paved road leading from the upper triumphal arch, which was tolerably complete when Guérin visited Sbeitla, is now almost annihilated; enough only remains to show its original size and direction. The fragments of slabs, broken up and ready to be calcined, still remain in heaps on the spot. In one of the walls of his house is an inscription placed upside-down, in the peculiar character which marks the Byzantine period. It has been chiselled over again, so that the first line is hardly legible, and it is almost impossible, in some cases, to distinguish between the L, I, and T. It is as follows:—
CRVITOMMVN. . . A . EPC . T
ALFEQVE POMPEIAEIOCAT
LF . AMEN HOC DOLORIBVS