A third arch existed at the other side of the town facing the W.S.W. This is now almost entirely destroyed, but the dimensions are recorded by Sir Grenville Temple[196]—
| Ft. | in. | |
|---|---|---|
| Length (of front ?) | 36 | 4 |
| Breadth (of depth?) | 9 | 5 |
| Width (of central archway?) | 17 | 8 |
From this there may still be observed a paved street running through the town.
The theatre has been a very remarkable building, constructed of immense and beautifully cut stones. Its form is indicated by the arches round the circumference which still exist; two parallel galleries surrounded the orchestra, and a considerable concentric portion of the proscenium and postscenium is still entire. We picked up a small fragment of sculpture amongst the ruins, representing a serpent coiled up in an attitude of repose, rudely but boldly executed.
Next in importance to the larger triumphal arch, is the Corinthian temple shown in both of Bruce’s drawings of the former building. He has left an excellent sketch of this, and two plates giving finished Indian-ink drawings of the decorative bands.
On the sketch itself he has added—somewhat unjustly, as it seems to me—a pencil remark, ‘Bad taste: it will do for a distance to arch; ornaments bad.’
The monument was more complete in his time than it is now; his drawing exhibits two entire sides of the cella, as far as the top of the pilasters, but no fragment either of the entablature or of the portico. At present the rear wall of the cella remains very much as it then was, but there is very little indeed existing of the other sides. On each side were four pilasters, the angular ones joining on each side; they were crowned with Corinthian capitals, very richly detailed, and having equally rich mouldings at their base; but the peculiar features of the building, which exist in no other one, as far as I am aware, in Africa, are the bands of sculpture occurring between the pilasters at about two-thirds of their height above the plinth. Bruce gives beautifully executed and highly finished drawings of the six which existed. They are all similar in composition, but differing in detail; they are bordered by a very elegant moulding, and contain the usual emblems of the sacerdotal office, such as the bucrane, or victim’s skull, from which garlands depend, supported in the centre by candelabra or vases; there are also introduced the knife, poleaxe, flagon for libations, the lituus, or augur’s wand, the flamen’s cap of office, the aspergillium for sprinkling lustral water, and several other emblems. Similar decoration is very frequent in the friezes of temples, but such sculptured bands on the walls are by no means common; the nearest approach to this feature, of which I am aware, is on the outside wall of the Pantheon at Rome, on each side of the principal entrance.
The other remains of Assuras are of less importance; they consist of several tombs and cisterns, private edifices and defensive works. Two bridges crossed the river, of which the upper was built of cut stone, that lower down the stream being of rubble masonry and brick, probably of a much later date.
The situation of this ancient city has been admirably chosen; it is built on a peninsula of land, surrounded on every side but the south by two water-courses, with deep and precipitous banks, which not only constitute a strong natural defence, but supply an abundance of fresh water.
In front of it stretches the plain of Es-Sers—no doubt, as Bruce remarks, a corruption of the ancient name Assuras. This basin, enclosed by hills on every side, contains about 50 square miles of rich, highly cultivated and irrigable land; but the plateau on which the city stood was cut off from the plain by the river, and was itself, or rather is now, perfectly barren.